Mapping out street directions

[EMTGirl4Bruce25]

You all have great ideas for mapping and how to learn your area. I respond with two different services in two different counties and they both dispatch differently. :? So to be able to use all of your ideas to create two mapping systems one for each county to have in my vehicle with be of great help and save time for the patients waiting for care. I do try to watch road signs and make mental notes of the roads when I am driving through the counties, but it sometimes that is hard to recall when you are going to the scene and you are in full EMT mode. Thanks for you great ideas.

[TNEMT]

I think that with the technology that we have today ALL states should require ambulances to have GPS in the unit. The GPS now days can talk, reroute if missed turn, tell you the closet hospital if you don't know the area. I just think that it would improve pt response time and maybe even save more lives. Because as we all know EVERY SECOND COUNTS!!

[AnthonyM83]

I think there's a fear concerning what happens when the systems go down and the EMTs aren't excellently proficient at mapping. You can rely on electronics for a lot of things, but for EMS, maybe we want to give it some time. A lot of these integrated dispatching/GPS systems still go down in individual rigs.

[EMT-B 55]

911 has provided each ambulance, police car and fire truck with two loose leave books. One book gives the physical description of the residence, ie white two story sitting on top of hill with long drive. The second book allows the user to look up address, that references the user to a page to see that section of the county map. Both have proved useful to us.

[Oscar]

I agree that GPS navigation is a nice tool, but it's not perfect. Our service has GPS navigation units in each rig. We've found that at times directions are spot-on. There are other times that directions are wrong or the address isn't found. There's always the possibility of user error, too.

You should do some in-depth testing to see how reliable it is in your area and use the GPS as a backup until you're very comfortable with it's degree of accuracy.

I own a Nuvi 350 and recently entered my parents address into it (they live in a small town). The directions were about 1 and 1/2 mile off - the GPS put their location in the southbound lane of Interstate 29!

Just be careful using it.

[Fluffpaw38]

i've been using the GPS for about a year. hasn't gone down once. Picks the shortest route automatically, And if i miss a turn it gives me the fastest alternate route. :shock: But i do agree with the above comments, if your GPS dependent and your little buddy dies...your in trouble.