The PZC (patient assignment code) describes an emergency patient in six digits and decides which hospital admits the patient. This article describes the configuration in the administration area of a dispatch center. How units transmit the PZC in a session and how dispatchers allocate patients is described in the article PZC System: Hospital Allocation in the Session.
All PZC settings are maintained exclusively in the administration area of a dispatch center. In sessions they are not modified; they are only evaluated.
Note: A session is an image of the dispatch center at the time it was created. Changes to departments, capacities or PZC assignments only apply to newly created sessions or after a managed session has been re-initialized (see Sessions in SIM Dispatcher).
Structure of the PZC
A PZC consists of six digits in three parts:
Digits | Meaning | Example |
1–3 | Incident code: the condition or injury (100–999) |
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4–5 | Age of the patient in years (00–99) |
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6 | Urgency level (1–3) |
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Urgency levels
Level | Color | Meaning |
1 | red | Immediate intervention |
2 | yellow | Inpatient admission likely |
3 | green | Outpatient treatment sufficient |
Not every incident code supports every urgency level. Ongoing resuscitation (131), for example, only exists with urgency level 1.
The PZC catalog
The valid incident codes are provided by the system in the PZC catalog. It follows the common German incident code list and is divided into groups, for example:
13x Resuscitation, 14x ECMO
2xx Injuries / accidents (e.g. 21x Multiple, 22x Face / head, 23x Chest)
3xx Conditions (e.g. 31x Respiratory / lung, 33x Chest pain, 34x Cardiovascular)
4xx Special condition / injury (neurology, psychiatry)
51x Pediatric, 52x–55x Pregnancy / obstetrics
60x–80x other operations, specialties and general medicine
The catalog is the same for all dispatch centers and cannot be extended per dispatch center. What each dispatch center defines is which hospital admits which incident code, in which department and at which urgency levels.
Prerequisites
Hospitals exist as POIs of the category Hospital. A dispatch center needs at least three hospitals; otherwise the dispatch center validation reports a problem.
For helicopters that don't land directly at the hospital, landing sites exist as POIs of the category Helicopter landing zone (HLZ) (optional).
Hospital departments
On the edit page of a hospital POI, the departments of the hospital are maintained under Hospital Departments. Each department can have the following settings:
Field | Description |
Department | The kind of department, e.g. Emergency Department, Shock Room, Cardiology. |
Name | Optional name of the department or ward, e.g. "Ward 3B" (max. 250 characters). |
Entrance | Optional point that units drive to for this department if it differs from the coordinates of the hospital. Chosen with Set on map and reset with Remove entrance. |
Helicopter landing zone | Optional POI of the category Helicopter landing zone for this department (e.g. a rooftop helipad). Takes precedence over the landing zone of the hospital. |
Capacity (patients at once) | How many patients the department can treat at the same time (1–9999). |
All settings are optional. Without a capacity the department's default applies, without an entrance the coordinates of the hospital.
Note: A hospital marked as Max Care Hospital automatically has all departments. Only add the departments whose settings differ from the defaults.
Default capacities
If no capacity is set, the simulation uses the following values (roughly a regular care hospital):
Department | Patients at once |
Emergency Department | 20 |
Trauma Surgery, Cardiology | 6 |
Pediatrics | 5 |
Ophthalmology, Surgical Intensive Care, Medical Intensive Care, Gynecology, Neurology, Stroke Unit, Oncology, Psychiatry, Urology | 4 |
Chest Pain Unit, Dermatology, Vascular Surgery, ENT, Delivery Room, Neurosurgery | 3 |
Burn Unit, CT, Maxillofacial Surgery, Shock Room, Nuclear Medicine | 2 |
Hyperbaric Chamber, MRI | 1 |
Helicopter landing zones
A helicopter landing zone can be set on the hospital POI (applies to all departments) or on a single department. If the landing zone is more than 500 m away from the department's entrance (e.g. at an airfield), the helicopter requests a ground transport from the landing zone to the hospital during the session.
The "PZC" page
Hospitals are assigned in the administration area of the dispatch center under the menu item PZC.
The page lists all incident codes of the catalog, grouped as described above. Each row shows:
three colored dots (red, yellow, green): a filled dot means the incident code supports this urgency level, a crossed-out dot means it doesn't,
the name and, on the right, the three-digit code.
Clicking a row expands the list of all hospitals of the dispatch center:
Column | Description |
Name | Name and address of the hospital. |
Assignable | The department in which the hospital admits patients with this incident code, or Not Assignable. The departments of the hospital are offered (all of them for a Max Care Hospital). |
Accepted urgency levels | The urgency levels at which the hospital admits patients. Only the levels the incident code supports are offered. |
Every change is saved immediately; there is no save button.
Assignment rules
One department per hospital and incident code: A hospital admits an incident code in exactly one department.
All urgency levels by default: When a department is assigned to a hospital, it initially accepts all supported urgency levels. Individual levels can be deselected.
At least one urgency level: As long as a department is selected, at least one urgency level stays selected. If the hospital shouldn't admit the incident code at all, choose Not Assignable.
Reset: Not Assignable also discards the urgency level selection. A later new assignment starts again with all levels.
Example: For 232 (Blunt chest trauma), the maximum care hospital accepts all urgency levels in the Shock Room, the smaller district hospital only level 3 (green) in the Emergency Department. A patient with 232183 can then be allocated to both hospitals, a patient with 232451 only to the maximum care hospital.
Effect in the session
The PZC assignments control two things in the session.
Hospital allocation by the dispatcher
In the Hospitals tab of the status overview, the dispatcher allocates patients to a hospital with an allocation form. The following applies:
With a PZC, only the hospitals that admit this PZC at this urgency level are shown, each with the assigned department and its occupancy.
Without a PZC, the tab shows all hospitals with the departments that have at least one incident code assigned. Departments without an assignment never receive an allocation and are hidden.
A hospital that doesn't admit the PZC refuses the allocation.
Important: Without PZC assignments, no hospital accepts an allocation. The assignments must be maintained for hospital allocation to work in the session.
The occupancy of a department is based on its capacity (or the default value).
Hospital preselection by the units
Depending on the PZC mode of the session, the units preselect a hospital themselves. Which one is controlled by the dispatch center option Transport destination by hospital PZC assignment:
Option | Selected hospital |
enabled | The nearest hospital that admits the PZC at this urgency level according to the PZC assignments. |
disabled, or no hospital admits the PZC | The nearest hospital that has the minimum departments of the incident code. |
no hospital has these departments | The nearest hospital at all. |
The minimum departments are defined by the system per incident code and are deliberately kept small, so that not every patient ends up at the maximum care hospital. Examples:
Incident code | Minimum departments |
| Emergency Department, Medical Intensive Care |
| Shock Room, Trauma Surgery, Neurosurgery |
| Emergency Department, Trauma Surgery |
| Chest Pain Unit |
| Hyperbaric Chamber |
Note: The units' preselection considers distance, not the current occupancy of the hospital. Whether the hospital has a free place only becomes clear with the allocation in the Hospitals tab.
Approach
When the dispatcher assigns a department, ground units drive to its Entrance, and helicopters land on the configured Helicopter landing zone.
Further settings
Setting | Where | Effect |
Transport destination by hospital PZC assignment | Dispatch center options | See above: units preselect by PZC assignment instead of by minimum departments. |
Start the simulation with empty hospitals (no own patients by time of day) | Dispatch center options | If the option is disabled (default), hospitals are already occupied by their own patients (walk-ins, inpatients, elective patients) when the simulation starts, depending on time of day, weekday and season. These are discharged one by one. If the option is enabled, only the dispatch center's allocations occupy the hospitals. |
Equipped with GPS | Resource master data | Units with GPS transmit the PZC digitally. Units without GPS report the PZC verbally by radio or phone and only drive to a destination the dispatcher tells them. |
Options and Limitations
What is possible?
Tiered care: Using the urgency levels, minor cases (green) can be sent to smaller hospitals and severe cases (red) to specialized centers.
Different departments per hospital: The same incident code can be admitted in the emergency department in one hospital and in a specialized department in another.
Realistic capacities: Each department can have its own capacity from 1 to 9999 patients.
Separate entrances and landing zones: Each department can have its own entrance and its own helicopter landing zone.
What is not possible / Limitations?
No custom catalog: Incident codes cannot be added, renamed or removed.
Only one department per incident code and hospital.
No time windows: An assignment applies around the clock. Admission stops or service hours cannot be configured.
Fixed treatment time: The simulation currently occupies a place for 120 minutes (red), 90 minutes (yellow) or 60 minutes (green). These values are not configurable.
No effect on running sessions: Changes only apply to new or re-initialized sessions.
Best Practices
Start with the emergency department: In reality, most incident codes go to the emergency department. First assign frequent codes (groups 3xx and 2xx) to the emergency departments of your hospitals, then refine special cases (shock room, chest pain unit, stroke unit, delivery room).
Assign every incident code at least once: An incident code without an assignable hospital cannot be allocated to any hospital in the session.
Restrict urgency levels deliberately: Let smaller hospitals accept only levels 2 and 3 if severe cases in your area go to a center.
Set realistic capacities: Capacities that are too large make occupancy meaningless; capacities that are too small lead to frequent refusals.
Maintain entrances: If the ambulance entrance or the shock room is not at the main address, set the department's entrance on the map.
Enable "Transport destination by hospital PZC assignment" once the assignments are maintained. The units then preselect the same hospitals that the Hospitals tab offers.
Check the result: After larger changes, create a new session and check in the Hospitals tab with a few typical PZCs which hospitals are offered.