GPS Use?

[Jacedc]

I work for an IFT company and we have a garmin gps unit to tell us where we are going wether it be to the hospital or sniff. I was curious though for the 911 responders how do you guys get dispatch to private residence? Do you just have a basic idea of all the streets or does your company provide a gps to get you there?

 

[TransportJockey]

Basic idea of streets and cell phones and map books. In the county I work 911 in, a lot of areas are geocoded wrong. Map books are something you have to be proficcient in using to work rural 911, and even urban 911

 

[throcktharock]

FT Job (Rural EMS), we have Garmin GPS units, which are rarely used. We also have map books that show each houses location, whether they are located down a long driveway, etc. These are used for every call, because it doesn't look good to creep down a road looking for an address when you could look in a map book and be able to tell your driver "Fourth house on left after xyz road" and drive right up to it. No time wasted.

At the PT job (Urban EMS) we use system status management, and all ambulances are tracked using MARVLIS, and when a call is "dropped" to the ambulance it automatically routes you and displays it on a tough book mounted up front. This used to be notoriously unreliable, but now is pretty stable and used regularly.

Throck

 

[Medic Tim]

We have cad. About 30 seconds after a 911 call is taken and an ambulance is needed ... The call drops on the closest unit. Every call starts off code 2(no lights no siren) the can can be upgraded code 1 (lights and siren) if it is a charlie, delta or echo(priority dispatch....I think I said the codes right) .We see all the call takers notes plus dispatch notes live on our screen. We can also map the call if we are not sure where it is. It will also notify us if the address is flaged for whatever reason. There will be times where we are almost on scene before we get any good info.

 

[DesertMedic66]

The company provides Mapbooks (the Thomas guides) and a GPS/CAD system (rarely used due to inaccurate directions). We get the address of the call and the closest cross street and then a map page number (757B4).

If we use the company provided GPS/CAD then we just push on a button that says map and that's all.

A lot of employees use their phones or buy their own GPS.

 

[Jon]

One of my 911 jobs - We've got GOOD maps in the MDC CAD terminal in the truck. They are GIS maps, and are freakishly accurate. We also have turn-by-turn mapbooks in the truck for our first and second due. If I'm dual medic and will be driving, I'll usually put my personal GPS into the truck to help with routing to hospitals.

Other 911 job: Standard ADC mapbooks and GPS's. I don't usually run the GPS unless I'm solo in the fly car - then it's nice to know where I'm going.

Transport: My partner or I will deploy a personal GPS.


As for "The Knowledge" of your territory. When I was a driver preceptor with the Volly BLS agency, it was expected that you would be able to list the major cross streets on both axis's of town, you'd know North/South/East/West cold, and you'd have a pretty good understanding of where each hundred-block fell. Then they installed GPS units. Things have been messy ever since. Us old-school types KNOW the fast ways, and predict traffic. Too many Noobs rely on the GPS to tell them where to go.

At the volly squad in MD, there is a map test that must be passed if I wanted to drive. I need to be able to write in EVERY street name into a map of the first due. Yeah, I'm not there yet, so I'm not lining up to take the test. I might in another 6 months or year - dunno.

Speaking of First Due, especially fire side: http://traditionstraining.com/a-lesson-for-the-fire-service-from-the-london-summer-olympics/

In the end, I love civilian GPS for routing working transport, and it's nice for a backup working 911 - but I don't like it as a prime tool for routing to an incident.

 

[Handsome Robb]

Map books and Garmin GPS units in each truck. Supposedly we are getting CAD/GPS setups but we will see if that ever happens.

In urban areas your standard GPS works just fine, with that said you have to be smarter than it. Use it when you get close to navigate through neighborhoods, before that use the mapbook and your brain to take the fastest route.

We cover a decent sized urban area plus the rest of the county except for one little pocket and run SSM so there's no way you could know where you are going anywhere in our response area on the drop of the hat.

 

[Tigger]

Map Books and Garmins here. We have CAD on the ToughBooks but they do not have any mapping.

The 911 town we have is the largest by land area in the state and I don't work there often so there is no way I can have much knowledge of that area. I'm getting better about Boston, but that is a seriously confusing city. I can usually get us to the ED without GPS if I have to, but on discharges and calls of that nature, I am still a bit tech reliant. Maybe if I worked in Boston year round...

 

[mycrofft]

Calling Mountain Res-Q? (resident GIS wonk).

 

[DavidM]

My service is country based and covers a large territory with a number of different towns. Based on the town we are dispatched to I can usually get the first turn or two out of the station. This gives my partner enough time to look it up in the map book or plug it into their phone/gps.

I can normally get to the hospitals fine but just in case I have shortcuts on my phone that will show me how to get from where I am to any of the hospitals we transport to.

Some of the guys I work with seem to have our entire huge territory memorized. No matter how far out the call is they know the way.

 

[eprex]

I was lectured for using GPS by a higher-up on my first call, then came to find that everyone in my company uses it for calls

GPS is not ideal. The algorithm could be crap, it doesn't know you're an ambulance that can blow lights, and the map could just be plain wrong. For instance, 50 years ago my county changed the residential numbering system but allowed residents to either keep their number or get a new one. So streets can have numbering systems that are completely out of whack.

 

[mycrofft]

If things go awry you can blame the Garmin but not prove it. If the map is wrong, you can produce it and show someone. AND the map book is never under too much foliage or between too many skyscrapers or mountains to perform, just need your glasses and a light.

We used to have a civil engineer's maps of the base and the offsite Capehart housing posted by the pumper's driver's side door. We didn't pull out of that station until the location was known.

 

[Jon]

Oh, and in OTH counties that I work 911 in, worst case scenario, dispatch has good GIS maps, and will help with directions when all else fails. (like, you're covering 3 towns over and it's a street with cross streets of "municipal boundary and dead end").

 

[ffemt8978]

We don't use GPS (rural 911 service that transports to 16 different hospitals). We learn how the addressing system works, and go off the 911 address. We do have maps of the cities where the hospitals are, but we're on our own to find the patient.

 

[TransportJockey]

We don't use GPS (rural 911 service that transports to 16 different hospitals). We learn how the addressing system works, and go off the 911 address. We do have maps of the cities where the hospitals are, but we're on our own to find the patient.

You're lucky you have a consistent adressing system. In my county there is no consistent system for address

 

[lightsandsirens5]

We don't use GPS (rural 911 service that transports to 16 different hospitals). We learn how the addressing system works, and go off the 911 address. We do have maps of the cities where the hospitals are, but we're on our own to find the patient.

Same here. Must be a statewide thing. I'm in a very rural county. All addresses in the country (that are outside city limits, of which there are like, 4 in the while county) are simply miles from 1st and Main in the county seat. Ie. Address 2156 is 21.5 miles from the county seat. Also, odds are on one side, evens on the other. (But that is probably standard.)

And they skip numbers when assigning addresses so there is room to put in new ones, in order. So in the 2150 block there might be 2 homes, but numbered 2152 and 2156. That way they can always stick more in if they need to and still be in numerical order.

What is really nice is, in my fire district, folks get the signs through us. And we help put then up. The are blue on one side and green on the other. So if you see a blue sign, the numbers are getting bigger and you are heading away from town. Green, getting smaller and going towards town.

And since I know my station location in reference to the seat, I know almost exactly how far I'll be driving when I hear the address on the page.

 

[ffemt8978]

Same here. Must be a statewide thing. I'm in a very rural county. All addresses in the country (that are outside city limits, of which there are like, 4 in the while county) are simply miles from 1st and Main in the county seat. Ie. Address 2156 is 21.5 miles from the county seat. Also, odds are on one side, evens on the other. (But that is probably standard.)

And they skip numbers when assigning addresses so there is room to put in new ones, in order. So in the 2150 block there might be 2 homes, but numbered 2152 and 2156. That way they can always stick more in if they need to and still be in numerical order.

What is really nice is, in my fire district, folks get the signs through us. And we help put then up. The are blue on one side and green on the other. So if you see a blue sign, the numbers are getting bigger and you are heading away from town. Green, getting smaller and going towards town.

And since I know my station location in reference to the seat, I know almost exactly how far I'll be driving when I hear the address on the page.

For most rural areas, the easiest way to remember it is the phrase "Southeasterners are odd". Houses on the south or east side of the street or the odd numbers. This usually flips within the limits of a city.

Also, for rural areas, each change in address on the same side of the street is generally an increase of approximately 105.6 feet from the intersection. An address ending in 2 is the first 105 feet, 4 is the next 105 feet, etc... This will give you a pretty good indication of how far from the intersection the driveway will be.

**These are all dependent upon how your local addressing system is planned out, but I have seen it hold true in multiple states and counties.

 

[abckidsmom]

FT Job (Rural EMS), we have Garmin GPS units, which are rarely used. We also have map books that show each houses location, whether they are located down a long driveway, etc. These are used for every call, because it doesn't look good to creep down a road looking for an address when you could look in a map book and be able to tell your driver "Fourth house on left after xyz road" and drive right up to it. No time wasted.

At the PT job (Urban EMS) we use system status management, and all ambulances are tracked using MARVLIS, and when a call is "dropped" to the ambulance it automatically routes you and displays it on a tough book mounted up front. This used to be notoriously unreliable, but now is pretty stable and used regularly.

Throck

Hey Throck! Glad to see you here!

 

[Sublime]

We use Mapsco and have a built in gps on some trucks. A lot of people use their phones for gps. I have my own personal gps I use sometimes.

 

[bahnrokt]

Im one of those freakish homing pigeons that not only knows every road, but where the bad pot holes, frost heaves, dips and mile markers are. I haven't gone near a GPS, phone or map in well over 12 months while covering 911 for a 72 sqmi town.