Optimizing Dynamic Ambulance Scheduling in Emergency Medical Services: An Analysis of Sharing Ambulance

With increasing pressure on emergency medical services (EMS) due to population growth and natural disasters, effective scheduling is essential for optimizing ambulance resources and ensuring timely responses. This study addresses the dynamic ambulance scheduling problem in EMS, with a focus on minimizing patient waiting times and evaluating several ambulance sharing strategies. Specifically, we examine various strategies, including non‐sharing ambulances, sharing ambulances and sharing ambulances with a priority mechanism, within both static and dynamic scheduling contexts to assess their performance. To tackle the scheduling problem, we propose a solution framework that integrates initial solution construction with a dynamic insertion procedure for real‐time patient calls. Numerical experiments conducted on the EMS system of Zhuzhou City reveal significant differences between static and dynamic scheduling methods. The results indicate that while shared ambulance strategies offer limited benefits under constrained conditions, they effectively reduce patient waiting times when resources are adequate. Furthermore, the inclusion of a priority mechanism enhances efficiency by expediting ambulance assignments and maintaining matching degrees across hospitals, which provides 5.52% savings in waiting time compared to the standard sharing ambulance mode in the tested examples. This research advances the understanding of ambulance scheduling strategies and provides insights for improving service delivery.