TAZ_OPT: A goal programming model for ambulance location and allocation

Ambulance is one of the emergency medical services (EMS) components. Quick ambulance response time for any emergencies is crucial in providing quality live-saving rescues. Strategic location and allocation of the ambulances is able to reduce the response time. This paper presents the Time-based Ambulance Zoning Optimization (TAZ_OPT) model, which determines the satellite locations of ambulances and the number of ambulances to be allocated at these stations. TAZ_OPT is a goal programming (GP) model. The model aims at maximizing the accessibility and the availability of ambulances.