Modelling of facilities for head injuries in London

This paper is part of a greater effort of the London Severe Injury Working Group that is aiming to the improvement of care, treatment and transfer of severely injured patients. The problem we address in this paper emanates from the Location Set Covering Problem literature. We sought to position the minimum number of trauma centers within a network of existing hospitals and minimize the total traveling time of patients, from the place of injury to the hospital of final treatment in such a way that everyone in the entire population of London can reach a trauma center within acceptable time limits. A mathematical programming approach has been adopted in order to solve the problem. The created model proved very useful in enlightening the problem and providing a set of solutions easily understandable by all parts involved in the final decision. The proposed configuration of the trauma centers was provided to the London Severe Injury Working Group for subsequent decisions.