Thomas Guide Mapping

DChambers97

Forum Ride Along
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Hello,

I'm new to this site and I just started training with McCormick Ambulance. I am in need of some tips for using the thomas guide. I understand page numbers and girds and having to know where you are on the map at all times. If you want to go up on the map you have to go left in the book by 30 pages, or if you want to go down on the map you have to go right in the book by 30 pages. I just need help/tips on how to route faster and more efficiently. This may be a bit confusing to some, but I would appreciate it if I can get help from anyone.

Thank you.
 

Jn1232th

Forum Captain
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Just practice is really all it is. Just pick a start point and route to nearest ER or trauma center or fire station. Also driving the area your going to work in helps out too. I’m guessing Inglewood area is were lost McCormick people start off from what I heard.
Even though your probably never going to use it once you pass Fto training, it is useful knowledge to know and comes in handy every once In awhile when reception sucks
 

RedBlanketRunner

Opheophagus Hannah Cuddler
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Just practice is really all it is.
the only way to get better is experience and practice.
One trick. Ignore street names. Familiarize yourself with general shape layouts of the grid. You can page flip much faster than trying to dial in on text. Watch somebody used to working with the guide. They flip through just recognizing the graphics of the page then zero in on the streets.
 
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DrParasite

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One trick. Ignore street names. Familiarize yourself with general shape layouts of the grid. You can page flip much faster than trying to dial in on text. Watch somebody used to working with the guide. They flip through just recognizing the graphics of the page then zero in on the streets.
what the heck are you talking about? ignore street names? just look at general shapes and layouts? that sounds like really bad advice.

@DChambers97, assuming your map book is like mine, there are 60+ pages with each page being a section of the overall map. so once you hit end of the page, you need to go to another map. this is really easy on the left to right page, but the top and bottom ones are 10 to 20 pages over (again, look at the overall map to understand why it's so much).

That all being said, while a map can help you find your way around (I'm still a fan of GPS, but that's another topic), you should be familiar with the main arteries of your response area. any highways (and where their exits are) or major roads, frequently visited locations, and all the hospitals. This comes with time, and the more you drive an area, the better you will be. If you are there for 12 or 24 hours, drive around, learn the areas, and find the best places to eat. I know many will want to sleep, but make your training time as productive as possible.

If you are responding with a particular fire department, or fire station number, know where they cover (many/most city FDs have a 2 mile first due area, and in the county, it's more like a general area). You won't know exactly where the call is, but you will know what direction to start driving in.
 

RedBlanketRunner

Opheophagus Hannah Cuddler
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what the heck are you talking about? ignore street names? just look at general shapes and layouts? that sounds like really bad advice.
Yes, that needs clarifying. I was recalling a stint driving long line. Have the map book that displayed every major city in the US. In pretty short order you can ID each one at a glance. Then talking it up with some CHP chums in central LA and they had a similar approach. Each map grid is like a fingerprint. Get familiarized using the same technique as speed reading and split second glances get you on the right page. The eye, sight recognition grabs general images, shapes, much faster than text. This is commonly used in advertising - billboard logic where you have an extremely limited period of time to get your message across. Billboards don't use text as the eye grab, they use symbols and eye catching shapes like logos. Same same in advertising on the stupid tube.
Bottom line, get the shapes then go for the text, the major streets and on in. When you're piloting a big rig or a unit you can't always stop and read. It's corner of your eye as you drive.
 
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jgmedic

Fire Truck Driver
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Yes, that needs clarifying. I was recalling a stint driving long line. Have the map book that displayed every major city in the US. In pretty short order you can ID each one at a glance. Then talking it up with some CHP chums in central LA and they had a similar approach. Each map grid is like a fingerprint. Get familiarized using the same technique as speed reading and split second glances get you on the right page. The eye, sight recognition grabs general images, shapes, much faster than text. This is commonly used in advertising - billboard logic where you have an extremely limited period of time to get your message across. Billboards don't use text as the eye grab, they use symbols and eye catching shapes like logos. Same same in advertising on the stupid tube.
Bottom line, get the shapes then go for the text, the major streets and on in. When you're piloting a big rig or a unit you can't always stop and read. It's corner of your eye as you drive.

What? No. Attendant maps, driver drives. Why the hell would you be mapping and driving at the same time.
 

RedBlanketRunner

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What? No. Attendant maps, driver drives. Why the hell would you be mapping and driving at the same time.
One of hundreds of instances spring to mind. Transport, pick up in Azusa going to Ross Loos west LA area. Attendant in back with patient. How many times did I glance at that map? A dozen at least.

Or a little bit funny. Another transport from a residence. Attendant on the map flipping back and forth through the pages. She finnaly mentions, exasperated, "I'm lost!" She was new to L.A. Come on, kiddo! We only have about what? 10 or so freeways and maybe 120 major arteries!
L.A. is actually pretty easy if you can sight recognize the freeways. Just grab one on just about any grid map with a glance then follow the page tracking.
 
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NomadicMedic

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When I was in Washington, a place I worked at prohibited GPS, you had to use the Thomas Guide. Or else!

I bought a Garmin and hid it. I used to get praised every month on my "mapping ability"

Thomas Guides are antiquated time wasters. With today's highly accurate GPS, there is zero reason to rely on a book that's outdated the minute it's published.
 

DrParasite

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Thomas Guides are antiquated time wasters. With today's highly accurate GPS, there is zero reason to rely on a book that's outdated the minute it's published.
Quoted for truth!!!

As someone who was dispatched to an address that wasn't on the map (nor were the cross streets, but a paper street was on the map, but on the other side of town), I can attest that having a GPS that is updated (or a smart phone with google maps) is much better than a paper map.
 

RedBlanketRunner

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When I was in Washington, a place I worked at prohibited GPS, you had to use the Thomas Guide. Or else!
What was the logic there? I'm coming from old school where 'whatever works best' was the general rule so I'm curious.

As someone who was dispatched to an address that wasn't on the map (nor were the cross streets, but a paper street was on the map, but on the other side of town), I can attest that having a GPS that is updated (or a smart phone with google maps) is much better than a paper map.
Except if you happen to be in, say, northern Thailand. My wife's boss, European, was a GPS worshipper. Didn't realize that GPS route may take you over a couple of missing bridges, a canal that was marked as a road, and maybe through a hog farm. 🤭 (They made him stop and wash his tires)
 
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Jim37F

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When I was at McCormick their official policy was to not use GPS but always use the Thomas Guide instead.

Yeah, i had a vent clip for my phone I used in the ambulance along with Google Maps. I just input the address (often reading it into voice input from what the pager said while walking to the rig), I kept the top down view on, so it showed the address point and my location... and used my knowledge of the local streets to route. Sometimes I'd use their suggested route (especially in an unfamiliar area, or a neighborhood who's streets looked more like a plate of spaghetti lol), but almost never had turn by turn routing on.

I will say the ability to read the Thomas Guide certainly saved me more than once when my phone pulled up 2 different points for the address I inputted in Google Maps, or was being slow, or whatever lol

But by and large, being comfortable with at least the major streets, know how to get out of the neighborhood and back onto the main streets, from there to your hospitals without GPS (at least your closest, regular destinations, I'd still have to GPS to an unfamiliar hospital) is key.

Medics didn't much like sitting in the back waiting for you to input the hospital into Maps, so knowing major streets and landmarks like hospitals so you dont have to always rely on GPS for transport is very def important.

But for responding, sure there's frequent addresses I could drive to from my station with no GPS help, but for the majority of random residences I wouldn't hesitate to GPS... I never got called into the office to explain why I got lost and busted response times!
 

DrParasite

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Medics didn't much like sitting in the back waiting for you to input the hospital into Maps, so knowing major streets and landmarks like hospitals so you dont have to always rely on GPS for transport is very def important.
pardon my language by F*$^#%^ the medics. it's 30 seconds, maybe a minute to input the address into the GPS. It's not going to cause that much of an issue with patient care.

While I agree you need to know your area, you might end up transporting to an out of the area hospital. Speaking from personal experience, I once took a patient to a hospital two counties away..... one that I had never been to, and needed GPS to find.... 40 minutes later, the charge nurse got all in a huff because we didn't call ahead.... once I explained who we were, and where we were from, his response was "really? why here?" and i said, because "the patient wanted to go here, and my boss said we could take the ride."

Although, I did get lost taking a trauma patient to the hospital, while following GPS. Well, not really getting lost, but the GPS took me to the main hospital entrance, not the ER. Sorry, I was new, not from the area, and it happens. drove around the block found the ER, dropped the patient off, teachable moment.

But you still need to know your areas, but also know how to use all the tools at your disposal.
 

Tigger

Dodges Pucks
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Yea, I'm not about to yell at anyone for making sure we don't get lost on the way to the hospital with a sick patient. I'll take the 30 second scene delay.

I actually understand (I think) a little bit about recognizing the map without the street names. Our map pages are a letter followed by a number. The city is broken up into (it's been a bit) 15 rectangles each with a letter. Inside each rectangle are 36 smaller rectangles with a number. When dispatched, you get "respond to XYZ street, map page E28. Since the rectangles are pretty small, it's super easy to just find the street in the box. The hard part is finding the route from the post, for that obviously you need to pull up the page of your post and start routing from there. But you don't get the map page of your post in the dispatch and it takes a while to look up the street in the index so there was definitely something to be said for being able to flip a few pages each way and recognize which pages had which post on them.

I love maps and pride myself on my ability to throw down with the map book. But I use the MDC or my phone most of the time anyway, can't let pride get in the way of showing up, especially with the growth here. And the city is 185 square miles so there can be some long runs.
 

Peak

ED/Prehospital Registered Nurse
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Keep in mind that you do need to actually put in the correct address though. I've had a few out of town crews take our patients to the other children's hospital in town and vice versa.

Not GPS but one of my favorites was when we got a report of a patient coming in with an amputation with a 45 minute ETA from an agency we had never heard of before (although we get plenty of cases from EMS groups we've never heard of), and our hand surgeon was already in the hospital sewing a thumb back on so we gave him and the OR a heads up that we would probably have an add on. Fast forward about a hour and the patient wasn't here so we called the crew back, turns out they googled the phone number for a very similarly named hospital. They realized that they had called the wrong hospital when they showed up and the ED wasn't ready for them. That hospital and the crew were both located in Canada roughly 1200 miles away.
 
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