Ambulance demand: trends, drivers and management strategies

Increasing demand for ambulance services places pressure on finite resources, hindering their ability to provide safe and timely care. Identifying the drivers of increasing demand is critical to inform targeted demand management strategies. Accurate allocation of limited resources is also complicated by limitations in the accuracy of medical dispatch systems used to triage emergency calls. Strategies that aim to improve emergency telephone triage accuracy are therefore required to improve resource allocation. This thesis consists of seven studies that investigate the drivers of ambulance demand and demand management strategies using data from Ambulance Victoria, the statewide ambulance service in Victoria, Australia.