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Technology predicts EMS run locations in Mich.

Results are then mapped out for the dispatchers and used to predict the future

Editor’s note: Check out Art Hsieh’s take in “Why EMS calls aren’t always random.”

Fox 17

RAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Thousands and thousands of emergency calls come into the control center at Life EMS in Grand Rapids. Information like where each 9-1-1 call came from and at what time it came in is then stored and analyzed.

The results are then mapped out for the dispatchers and used to predict the future. Ambulances are sent out to the areas of the city based on the frequency of past emergency calls. A heavy concept, but one that Tony Sorensen said works with a high degree of accuracy.

In 2009, When Life EMS began using the technology Sorensen call predictive deployment, he admits there were some skeptics. “We actually had crews, ambulance crews that would question us, ‘why are we going there? We never go there.’ And within 10 minutes they are going to a “priority one” medical call a block-and-a-half away,” Sorensen said.

Full story: Predicting Where The Next Emergency Will Happen