TO QUEUE OR NOT TO QUEUE: NEW COMPUTER-AIDED DECISION ASSISTANCE FOR URBAN EMERGENCY SERVICES

THE RESEARCH FOCUSES ON REGIONAL EMERGENCY SERVICES, BOTH PRIVATE SECTOR (E.G., FIELD REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE SERVICES) AND PUBLIC SECTOR (E.G., POLICE AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES). THE GOAL IS TO CREATE A USEFUL SYSEMS PLANNING TOOL, IMPLEMENTED ON A DESKTOP COMPUTER, AND BUILDING FROM EARLIER RESEARCH THAT LED TO THE "HYPERCUBE QUEUEING MODEL". THIS MODEL, ORIGINALLY CREATED IN THE 1970S AND IMPLEMENTED WIDELY, WILL BE ENHANCED AND UPDATED TO INCORPORATE NEW OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES THAT EMERGENCY SYSTEMS HAVE IMPLEMENTED IN THE 1990S. MANY OF THE NEW PROCEDURES HAVE BEEN MADE POSSIBLE BY NEW TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS COMPUTER-AIDED DISPATCH (CAD) SYSTEMS, AUTOMATIC VEHICLE LOCATION (AVL) SYSTEMS, AND ON-LINE DETAILED TRANSACTIONAL DATA SYSTEMS.