Geography Matters to Emergency Medical Services

Geography plays an important role in responding to emergencies and saving lives. Response capabilities often rely on a variety of data from multiple agencies. The capability to access and process this information quickly and deploy resources where needed can be critical.

Geographic information system (GIS) software from ESRI uses geography and computer generated maps as an interface for integrating and accessing massive amounts of location-based information. Many agencies rely on GIS to access real-time.

Response
Emergency response teams use geographic data to generate efficient routes between hospitals or fire stations and reported incident locations. Using advanced vehicle location (AVL) and tracking, dispatch managers can track the location of various apparatus through global positioning system (GPS) transponders attached to the vehicles along a GIS generated basemap at the dispatch terminal.

Analysis
With call information stored in a database, emergency medical response calls can be analyzed and displayed by type, time of call, location, and other criteria. Trends, volume of business, and areas of high impact can be visually displayed and quickly reviewed. Epidemics can be displayed and tracked to determine where and how fast a disease is spreading. Future response activity can be anticipated and planned.

Computer generated map data and integrated information access can significantly improve emergency and response capabilities. If you would like to know more, we invite you to explore our many informational and downloadable resources.