Publications by authors named "Karen Aardal"
Background: Ambulance services play a crucial role in providing pre-hospital emergency care. In order to ensure quick responses, the location of the bases, and the distribution of available ambulances among these bases, should be optimized. In mixed urban-rural areas, this optimization typically involves a trade-off between backup coverage in high-demand urban areas and single coverage in rural low-demand areas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFComparing population and incident data for optimal air ambulance base locations in Norway.
Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med
May 2018
Background: Helicopter emergency medical services are important in many health care systems. Norway has a nationwide physician manned air ambulance service servicing a country with large geographical variations in population density and incident frequencies. The aim of the study was to compare optimal air ambulance base locations using both population and incident data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Helicopter emergency medical services in Norway are vital, with a study aimed at determining the best locations for air ambulance bases to optimize coverage due to geographical challenges.
- High-resolution population data from 2015 was used to model optimal base locations, revealing that 90% of the population could be served with four bases at a 45-minute response time, and full coverage would require nine bases.
- The findings suggest that the existing base locations could be improved by strategically adding or relocating one or two bases, and using broader municipality-level data yields similar coverage results as more detailed data.