The purpose of this study is to analyze a strategy for the assignment and transportation of injured patients to hospital to decrease the demand on transportation, in both predisaster and postdisaster periods, on the Anatolian side of Istanbul.

Two approaches are used in this study: a Voronoi diagram, and a heuristic approach to the problem of scheduling. A Voronoi diagram is used to divide the city into 74 regions, where each hospital has a certain region of responsibility. The transportation strategy of 1 hospital is modeled by minimizing the makespan (ie, the maximal completion time) and the work-in-process, which are used as different objectives in scheduling theory.

The total waiting time of 100 injured people was minimized to 13,036 min when a total of 3 vehicles was used in the studied region, on the Asian side of Istanbul. The transportation capacity and total operating capacity of the hospitals should be approximately equal.

The people of Istanbul will be in a safer position if the suggested measures are implemented. This is an important consideration, as Istanbul is situated in a region where serious earthquakes are possible at any moment.