Spatial Analysis of Pre-Hospital Emergency Bases in Disasters in Tehran Province, Iran
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Doi: 10.32592/jorar.2020.13.1.7 Spatial Analysis of Pre-Hospital Emergency Bases in Disasters in Tehran Province, Iran Zahra Mollamohammad Alian Mehrizi1 , Seyed Ahmad Mirshojaee2 Date of submission: 24 Jan. 2021 Date of acceptance: 3 Feb. 2021 Original Article Abstract INTRODUCTION: Tehran is always exposed to various dangers due to its high population density. A geographic information system (GIS) can be very useful for reducing the financial and human burden caused by accidents, disasters, and diseases. METHODS: This field study was performed using a practical and descriptive research method. The pre-hospital emergency bases in the east of Tehran province and all the emergency bases covered by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in disasters were evaluated as a case study. The population of these cities amounted to 1,149,485 people and included cities in the east of Tehran province, Iran, including Damavand, Firoozkooh, Pakdasht, Pishva, Qarchak, and Varamin. FINDINGS: Rational maps were created and analyzed in the areas where emergency bases were located using ArcGIS software, as well as analysis of regions, distances, point density, and a combination of these factors. Regarding the standards and indicators, it was determined that the Disaster and Emergency Medical Management Center needs to have130 emergency medical technicians, 23 ambulances, and one ambulance bus to equip the exiting emergency bases according to the standard pre-hospital regulations. Other requirements in this regard include the replacement of worn-out ambulances with new ones, construction of two emergency bases in Qarchak, Tehran, Iran, and three emergency bases in Pakdasht, Tehran, Iran, as well as the transfer of bases in the proximity of faults and flood-prone areas to safe places. CONCLUSION: Based on the obtained results, a comprehensive pre-hospital database was designed for the use of managers and officials in the occurrence of accidents, which might be used as a pilot work that can be expanded to other areas of Tehran, Iran, and other provinces in managing disasters and accidents. Keywords: Geographic Information System; Management of Accident; Pre-hospital Emergency; Spatial Analysis How to cite this article: Mollamohammad Alian Mehrizi Z, Mirshojaee SA. Spatial Analysis of Pre- Hospital Emergency Bases in Disasters in Tehran Province, Iran. Sci J Rescue Relief 2021; 13(1): 61-76. Introduction ost of the deaths and disabilities caused treatment team when they receive timely, prompt, by accidents occur in the interval of the and appropriate care in the pre-hospital phase (1). injured or sick person’s transfer from The financial burden of disabilities and the Downloaded from jorar.ir at 19:07 +0330 on Thursday September 30th 2021 [ DOI: 10.32592/jorar.2021.13.1.7 ] M the accident site to the hospital. In this mortality rate will be reduced through the proper regard, the preparedness of pre- management of pre-hospital emergency resources hospital emergency bases, as the front line of the and facilities, proper access to all parts of the Ministry of Health, is very important before and province, especially densely populated areas, provision of first aid, and timely rescue of patients during the crisis. While there is considerable and victims’ lives. Although only three decades evidence of patient care, there is ample evidence have passed since the official launch of the that shows patients get better results from the emergency medical system, ample evidence 1-Assistant Professor, Applied Science Higher Education Institute Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran, Iran 2-Master of DMIS, Tehran, Iran Correspondence to: Zahra Mollamohammad Alian Mehrizi, Email: [email protected] Sci J Rescue Relief 2020; Volume 13; Issue 1 61 http://jorar.ir Spatial analysis of pre-hospital emergency bases shows that this system has provided valuable locate roadside emergency bases more easily and services to the health system in this short period coordinate traffic police patrol plans (4). of time (2). In another study entitled “Site selection for Regarding the data integration capabilities of post-earthquake relief centers using GIS and the geographic information system (GIS) as well analytic hierarchy process (AHP)” Zebardast et as the possibility of performing complex analyzes al. of spatial and non-spatial data, this system is have proposed criteria for locating emergency considered the best decision-making tool in the bases according to environmental and physical management of the crisis. Moreover, GIS can be capabilities after the examination of one area in used to locate pre-hospital emergency bases Tehran, Iran, in terms of accident rate using before the crisis and identify high-risk areas in GIS (5). times of accidents. In a study conducted by Chen Albert et al. Much scientific research has been conducted (2014), American Society of Civil Engineers, inside and outside the country to study the entitled “Ambulance service area considering the situation of emergency services and other relief disturbance of disasters on transportation organizations in the cities. Some examples of infrastructure” the impact of accidents was these researches have been considered in the considered as a disruptive factor in the emergency present study. medical service system. This study aimed to assess Moghaddasi et al. (2014) conducted a the area of emergency medical services after an comparative study on pre-hospital emergency accident and investigate the deviation of services information systems in the United States and the before and after disruption in the emergency United Kingdom on the components of an transport infrastructure (6). information system including data, hardware and A study conducted by Sari (2017), investigated software, people, as well as the processing of the shortest response time for emergency vehicles, data, reports, and information. The result was the taking into account obstacles such as speed bumps, design and creation of a national pre-hospital traffic lights, the condition of street parking, emergency information system and the provision railways, and intersections that reduce the speed of of hardware and software systems and equipment emergency vehicles. These items were considered for the coefficient of intervention time increase in this the management of pre-hospital emergency study and the results were compared with the information regarding the mobile nature of shortest path and shortest-time path (7). emergency services. The possibility of extensive In another study, a powerful and emerging tool electronic processing has been proposed in this was optimized for solving random and dynamic emergency service in order to meet the need for problems encountered in operational research using information. Furthermore, there is the possibility dynamic approximate programming (ADP). of reporting and receiving the required Dependence on time-dependent information, such information based on user’s searches at local, as the arrival time of the ambulance and its provincial, and national levels (3). consequences, in the stage of modeling and Talebi and Faryabi (2014) investigated the role optimization, leads to non-optimal decisions. of information systems in road accident Therefore, extensive parameters were used for the Downloaded from jorar.ir at 19:07 +0330 on Thursday September 30th 2021 [ DOI: 10.32592/jorar.2021.13.1.7 ] management in their study entitled “Application proposed algorithm in this study [8]. of GIS in road accident management”. This article introduces a provincial experience in the Description of the studied area application of GIS in the field of transportation The studied area included the cities located at information analysis, especially road accidents. In the east of Tehran province, Iran, including this project, an attempt has been made to produce Varamin, Firoozkooh, Damavand, Pakdasht, a model that predicts the probability of accidents Pishva, and Qarchak cities, which are under the in the West Azerbaijan roads through the design supervision of Shahid Beheshti University of of software (GIS) and analyzing spatial and Medical Sciences in terms of pre-hospital descriptive data of accidents using genetic emergency bases. The total, population of these methods. Moreover, this analysis was used to six cities was estimated at 1,149,485 people, who were distributed in 11 districts, 14 cities, 24 62 Sci J Rescue Relief 2021; Volume 13; Issue 1 http://jorar.ir Mehrizi and Mirshojaee villages, and 537 rural districts, according to the Subsequently, a unit map was compiled for all latest census. The length of the communication six cities and was properly georeferenced. routes in these areas was estimated at 3,734 km. In the following analysis, the urban and road According to the information of the Statistics bases have been distributed as a single map in Unit of the Plan and Budget Organization of Iran each criterion, considering the location of faults, (2017) (9), Varamin, Tehran, Iran, included two watercourses, earthquakes, and other hazards. districts, two cities, and four villages, Firoozkooh Tehran, Iran, included two districts, two cities, and Communication routes in the east of Tehran five villages, Damavand, Tehran, Iran, included province two districts, five cities, and five villages, The total length of communication routes in Pakdasht, Tehran, Iran, included two districts, the east of Tehran province is specified in Table 1 three cities, and six villages, Pishva, Tehran, Iran, and Map 1. included