محمدتقی تقوی فرد

INTRODUCTION: In times of crisis, the timely transfer of the injured to medical facilities is one of the most important stages of relief and one of the most widely used methods to achieve the transfer point designing goal. The transfer point in literature is a place to collect and transfer the optimal demand for a particular service. For example, in times of natural disasters such as earthquakes, the injured (customers) are transferred by ambulance to the transfer points and then by helicopter to the hospital (facility). METHODS: In this study, two single-objective and double-objective complex integer number programming models were presented for the problem of locating transfer points and optimal allocation to facilities, taking into account the limitations in facility capacity and transfer points as well as assuming two types of normal and bad injuries. FINDINGS: In the single-objective model, the reduction in the time of sending the injured in the relief chain, and in the double objective model, in addition to the previous goal, the reduction of the fine for not sending the injured were examined. It is only possible to transfer each injured person to the hospital using the transfer points, and the treatment of the normally injured individuals is performed at the transfer points. The models were solved with two approaches, mild and severe. In order to show the efficiency of the proposed models, a case study was conducted in districts 10, 11, and 17 of Tehran metropolis, Iran. CONCLUSION: Setting up transfer points has a great impact on speeding up the process of providing services to the injured. Additionally, given the disproportionality of the number of injured with the capacity of hospitals in severe crises, it is necessary to anticipate transfer points to manage relief and respond to all injured.

INTRODUCTION: Rescue and relief organizations start their operations from the first moments after the occurrence of a disaster. Moreover, they set up emergency accommodation camps after the emergency period to deliver aid and health packages with standard content based on the general needs of the affected people. However, if a family has infants, children, elderly, or sick members, these packages will not be able to meet their needs. Cash donations instead of goods respect the human dignity of the affected people after the emergency period and result in the recovery of the families and the economy of the region. Usage of information technology for this purpose leads to speed, accuracy, and transparency in the implementation of the above-mentioned method. Given the differences between the situation in Iran and the international community, the present study aimed to find localized components that affect the provision of cash-based interventions to the affected people by natural disasters using information and communications technology. METHODS: This mixed method research was performed in two stages; meta-synthesis was used in the first stage and Fuzzy Delphi was used in the second stage to extract the domestic components of the cash-based interventions. The statistical population in the meta-synthesis stage was the local and international journals as well as the performance reports of international aid agencies published during 2004-2019. Finally, through sample selection and systematic selection based on the defined keywords, 71 out of 388 studies were selected for the purposes of the research. In the second stage, the statistical population consisted of executive directors of local aid agencies and crisis management instructors at universities and international workshops. Eventually, 14 experts were selected judgmentally who participated in three Delphi rounds. FINDINGS: In the first stage, 18 components in four categories were determined using the seven-step model of Sandelowski and Barroso. In the first round of Delphi, one component was omitted and six other components were added according to the opinions of the experts. However, in the second and third rounds, all the components were approved by them without any further changes. According to the obtained Kendall’s rank correlation coefficient which was about 0.703, the local components were agreed upon by the selected experts. CONCLUSION: The determined local components that affect the process of transferring cash-based interventions to the affected people by natural disasters using information and communications technology consisted of 23 components that were screened and confirmed by the experts. These components can be used as a basis for the development of a process model for the systematic electronic transfer of money to the affected people by natural disasters in Iran after the emergency response period.