Using in car GPS

[Sasha]

You know what we need on the IFT side? Considering how big and complex these hospitals are, an on stretcher GPS for navigating the hospials! Dang!

 

[PapaBear434]

You know what we need on the IFT side? Considering how big and complex these hospitals are, an on stretcher GPS for navigating the hospials! Dang!

Agreed. It's rare, but sometimes they tell us to take a patient straight to L&D or the cardiology department. And I don't have a clue. I am lucky if I can find my way around the ER, let alone trying to follow the poorly laid out signs that never seem to point me in the right direction let alone the most direct route. Even if they do eventually get me there, I realize after I get there how I got there in the most idiotic and round about way possible.

 

[johnrsemt]

I agree with Sasha; I don't think I have ever gotten lost in my city, (have misplaced a ECF for a short while, but never gotten lost) on the street.

In the hospitals: that is a different story. gotten lost to the point of needing bread crumbs and a guide dog.

 

[Hockey]

You know whats really scary

Going to the wrong hospital because for some reason, you thought they wanted to go to that one over the other one.


oops


Boy the look on their face was priceless

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

I, for one, take my personal GPS to work with me every day. Not only does it provide me with near 100% knowledge of the coverage area, but it also provides me with a near 100% accurate ETA... both of which are extremely useful when we go to some of the more rural areas of our coverage area to rendezvous with a volunteer BLS unit.

Oh yeah, forgot about that! My old GPS had an "Emergency mode" so when I was running hot to the hospital the ETA under that mode was earlier than the ETA under the normal car mode. I'm not sure, but I felt that under emergency mode it also routed us in such a way to avoid smaller side streets that we would have trouble fitting in between two cars in.

 

[bstone]

I've seen the emergency mode on my GPS but never used it.

I live in Boston. If you don't have a GPS there is something wrong with you.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

You know what we need on the IFT side? Considering how big and complex these hospitals are, an on stretcher GPS for navigating the hospials! Dang!

You need to go to St. Louis and visit the patient care portion of the Medical Campus at WashU. Not the entire medical campus...I do want to see you again, but just start with the hospitals.

To get from the the recovery rooms to some patient care rooms can take 15 minutes. Elevator from 3 to bridge level. Walk for 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile while pushing a heavy hospital bed + patient, and another elevator ride up to their floor. 15 minutes there, and about another 7-10 back!

The complex was so big they used to have 2 adult emergency rooms, one on the north side of campus and one on the south! The trauma teams were getting too much exercise, so they finally combined them into one ER that's luckily just a building or two away from the Childrens ER.

Even having worked there and taken classes there in come capacity for 2 years now, I still only understand about 2/3 of the hospital. It's not uncommon to see professors (doctors) carrying around maps if they need to leave their department for a consult or for a meeting.

Further complicating things is the fact that not all of the floors connect, and those that do might connect from the 3rd floor of one area to the 4th floor of another due to the fact that we're built on a hill.

And you thought you had it rough!

 

[SoOhArDsOmIcH]

The company i work for uses them for our Nev drivers but not the basic or Als trucks. Alot of the guys/gals use their personal ones though.

 

[daemonicusxx]

I use it, as A) Dallas is one darn confusing city, and B ) I don't drive in Dallas much, so I can't learn the roads as fast as people who are full time / live there.

When I drove the PICU truck, the nurses in the back were a bit perturbed when they saw me put my GPS up before heading to the destination. Medics though, it depends. Some have their own. Some are old school and hate them. Oh well, I'm the one driving, deal with it.

Sorry, but with dozens of hospitals in multiple cities that I don't live in, dozens of nursing homes, and hundreds of different routes to each, I'm using a GPS.



Now, if I were to work here in Ft Worth where I live, I wouldn't need it as much.

I wish the company i worked for would ban them. my partner relys on his way too much, i usually refer to it as his "pacifier".

a full 16 shifts with a DTO to learn the city and you still have to have a GPS in the windshield to find your way around. hell, im sure he spends about 10% of his driving time with his eyes on the road, and 90% of the time with them in the GPS screen.

you say "im the one driving, get over it" i say, im the one thats responsible for this truck for the next twelve hours, take that stupid thing out of the windshield and get urself a mapsco.

 

[Sasha]

I wish the company i worked for would ban them. my partner relys on his way too much, i usually refer to it as his "pacifier".

a full 16 shifts with a DTO to learn the city and you still have to have a GPS in the windshield to find your way around. hell, im sure he spends about 10% of his driving time with his eyes on the road, and 90% of the time with them in the GPS screen.

you say "im the one driving, get over it" i say, im the one thats responsible for this truck for the next twelve hours, take that stupid thing out of the windshield and get urself a mapsco.

Normally whoever crashes is at fault so you couldn't be held responsible for someone else's driving.

He is the one driving, suck it up and deal. I don't see how it's any safer to have your eyes on a map than it is on a GPS screen, and he can always turn on the audio to avoid having to look at the screen.

 

[MMTG]

All of our MDT's technically have GPS mapping technology,but its slooooow. We are dispatched via radio,MDT, and pager with FD Jurisdiction address/cross streets and Thomas Guide map grids....its getting to the point after 4 yrs that i really don't need the mapbook anymore.

my partner has a GPS unit(his personal one) and We can map faster than, so go figure

 

[Shishkabob]

you say "im the one driving, get over it" i say, im the one thats responsible for this truck for the next twelve hours, take that stupid thing out of the windshield and get urself a mapsco.

And if my partner said that, I'd still say tough, medic or not.

Medics aren't supervisors over EMTs at my company, and if my partner begins to act like it, I'd tell him to shove it. They are in charge of pt care when it comes to THEIR pt. No other time.

It's a partnership, not a dictatorship, I don't care what color your patch is.

 

[bstone]

I wish the company i worked for would ban them. my partner relys on his way too much, i usually refer to it as his "pacifier".

One of the funniest things I've read in a long, long time. Thanks for the laugh!

But seriously, banning a GPS would make no sense at all. Because of my GPS I know now the existence of roads and ways to get places that I previous could never, ever navigate alone in the insane streets of Boston.

I can just imagine it now...you're trying to get to the address of an emergency EMS call that is in an area you've not been to before and don't know well. The GPS brings you straight there with little to no margin of error (it even quickly recalculates if you miss a turn) vs a map in one hand, steering wheel in another with one eye on the map and another on the road.

Which is the more preferred method?

 

[bstone]

And if my partner said that, I'd still say tough, medic or not.

Medics aren't supervisors over EMTs at my company, and if my partner begins to act like it, I'd tell him to shove it. They are in charge of pt care when it comes to THEIR pt. No other time.

It's a partnership, not a dictatorship, I don't care what color your patch is.

OMG! Someone call Guiness! We agree on something!

 

[Shishkabob]

OMG! Someone call Guiness! We agree on something!

Is it ok if we pretend that never happened and go back to our bickering ways?

 

[PapaBear434]

And if my partner said that, I'd still say tough, medic or not.

Medics aren't supervisors over EMTs at my company, and if my partner begins to act like it, I'd tell him to shove it. They are in charge of pt care when it comes to THEIR pt. No other time.

It's a partnership, not a dictatorship, I don't care what color your patch is.

I did the same thing when a medic was trying to turn off my siren at night, to go lights only, because he was old school and that's what you did. According to Virginia law and the official policy of the department, however, if your lights are on, you have to have your siren on too.

So, he kept reaching over and switching off my damn siren, and I'd turn it on. About the third time I told him to not touch it again or I'd break his hand, because I'm driving and I'm not risking losing my EVOC because you have to have things your particular way. Don't like it? You can drive next time.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

I wish the company i worked for would ban them. my partner relys on his way too much, i usually refer to it as his "pacifier".

a full 16 shifts with a DTO to learn the city and you still have to have a GPS in the windshield to find your way around. hell, im sure he spends about 10% of his driving time with his eyes on the road, and 90% of the time with them in the GPS screen.

you say "im the one driving, get over it" i say, im the one thats responsible for this truck for the next twelve hours, take that stupid thing out of the windshield and get urself a mapsco.

Well, first, he doesn't need to be looking at it all the time, only at intersections. Since he has to come to a full stop at every intersection anyways, that's a good time to look at it! I sincerely doubt he's looking at it all the time, it gets boring--the granny slamming on her brakes and pulling to the left in front of you is more interesting to watch.

Also, if you really are uncomfortable with it, you have the option to drive instead of him!

I usually would have the GPS but if it was a route I was pretty familiar with I would not rely on it until we got close to the actual address. After a 15 minute trip turned into a 2 hour and 10 minute ordeal, I never again left home without my GPS, just in case.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

I did the same thing when a medic was trying to turn off my siren at night, to go lights only, because he was old school and that's what you did. According to Virginia law and the official policy of the department, however, if your lights are on, you have to have your siren on too.

So, he kept reaching over and switching off my damn siren, and I'd turn it on. About the third time I told him to not touch it again or I'd break his hand, because I'm driving and I'm not risking losing my EVOC because you have to have things your particular way. Don't like it? You can drive next time.

This is interesting, the law says yes here in Ohio too. But at night and on the highway most go without siren unless there's traffic around. Our SOPs state that audibles must be used but may be turned off when there is no traffic around at the discretion of the Officer In Charge (who is the guy operating the siren, remember, the driver should not be the one operating the lights and sirens!). It's nice at night since our station is in the middle of a neighborhood (I mean in the MIDDLE of one, we have residences on all sides of our firehouse and to get to the main road we have to drive about a half mile through the neighbourhood) and that means we don't wake up half the neighbourhood just trying to get to the main street.

 

[eageeye86]

GPS is just about a necessity. We don't have it in any of our Volly rigs, but theres one in each of the rigs at work. You do have to know the area a bit though. The first time I drove at work ( 25 min from my house in another state) it got me to the scene but then the GPS just kind of "forgot" where we were. I put in the hospital and it sent me in a circle. I was about to throw it out the window. After that I spent a week driving the district before and after my shift. Now I know just about all the roads. (oh yeah its a rural area, and in Pike county driveways over a certain length have to have road names.) Another time we had a call in a development and we got there alright, but when I put in the hospital it thought a dead end connected with another road. It was a little ridiculous, I could see the road but they had boulders in the way. I had to back up and take another road. kinda embarrassing.

 

[EMTinNEPA]

Looking at a GPS while driving is NOT a safety concern unless the driver is a moron. I check my GPS the same way I check my speedometer or my mirrors: with quick glances.