Australia’s New GPS Tracking System for Ambulances
27 Jan 2015Residents of Queensland, Australia can now track an ambulance’s whereabouts in real-time with GPS tracking technology.
In Australia, researchers are beginning to use GPS tracking devices for a number of things, including tracking vehicles. Not just any vehicles, but ambulance fleets. Over 1,000 ambulance trucks are getting GPS tracking with advanced tracking technology that is linked to an online service. Anyone will be able to log-on to the website or the app and see where the ambulance is in real-time.
This will be the first time GPS tracking is used for this purpose in Australia, beginning in Queensland. The software will be known as Real-Time Operational Ambulance Management software, or iROAM. It was originally launched in 2012 for the Queensland Ambulance Service. The system was developed by QAS and provided supervisors to look at operation of their fleets, find out if they can figure out a better dispatching system, and find out what ambulances were available, and what ones were arriving at nearby hospitals.
Now, the general public in Queensland will have this tracking information available. Due to privacy issues and patient confidentiality, the public will not have all the details of the ambulance rides. However, they can see a map of their area, how many ambulances are en route to homes and hospitals, and even see if an ambulance they called for themselves is on the day.
Additionally, the GPS tracking data will reveal a total number of ambulances that are busy or at the hospital, with a link to the Emergency Services Computer Aided Dispatch System provided by QAS. The commissioner of QAS, Russell Bowles, has provided this service as a way to keep their public more informed. He told reporters:
“One of the biggest misconceptions is that when there are ambulances dropping patients at a hospital, there are none available to respond to other emergencies. Use of the QAS social media stream has more than doubled in the past six months. We can use this tool to dispel some of the myths.”
The hope is that the public can view the ambulances and know where they are at and how many more are available throughout Queensland. With the increase in social media interactions through the QAS networks, they believe that the general public in Australia will be interested to use this interactive tracking system.
Once available, people will be given a website where they can view the ambulances throughout Queensland, including information about the fleet, like the number of that ambulance. They can see their movement in real-time on an interactive map. If someone needs to call an ambulance, they can see on the map which one has been dispatched in their area so they have a better idea of when it might arrive.
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