Abstract Increasing acute patients and the condition of revenue shortage in rural China require allocating ambulance resources both effectively and efficiently. In this study,we examined the location and allocation problem in Dancheng County,Henan Province,based on the data supplied by the county government. Using the shortest route analysis in the Network Extension in ArcGIS 10,we measured the current accessibility to the ambulance sites in the county. The results show that the average travel time from each settlement to the nearest ambulance site were 11.14 minutes. Of 489 settlements (971364 residents),370 settlements (749826 residents) were served within 15 minutes. We used the p-medium model provided by ArcGIS 10 to optimize the locations of 6 township hospitals among 20 ones. After optimization,429 settlements (858423 residents) were served within 15 minutes. Using the paired t-test of the response times,we found that the response time significantly decreased after relocating the ambulance sites. Next,using 15 minutes as the response time,we,using the location set covering model (LSCM) in ArcGIS 10,explored the minimum number of ambulance sites that can cover all settlements within the county. The results indicate that 13 sites are appropriate for serving all settlements except for three ones. This number can be applied to the rural areas which have the physical and social-economic characteristics similar to the study area. We suggest that local governments in China should use the geographic information systems (GIS) technique to allocate public resources such as ambulance,because this technique has advances in reducing operating costs and in improving social justice. Additionally,the local government should also provide village doctors with emergence training skills,which can save the patient's life if he or she needs a shorter response time than 15 minutes to hospital.
2013, Vol. 28 
