Emergency Medical Services: System Description

This working paper presents a draft of a forthcoming report. The report will contain more detail (including diagrams) and numerous references to existing literature. Both the working paper and the report are intended to serve as the basis for a chapter in the forthcoming monograph, "Analysis, Planning and Management of Urban Emergency Services." The author welcomes comments. Responses to the following two questions would be especially appreciated: (1) How can the description of the emergency medical services system be sharpened and clarified, (i) for analytically oriented readers interested in the analytical structure of the system, and (ii) for managerially oriented readers interested more in how the system works and where a particular EMS system may best be improved? (2) How can the description be made both more general and more precise, so that it will apply as well as possible to actual systems in all IIASA's member countries