The EMS stations dataset consists of any location where emergency medical services (EMS) personnel are stationed or based out of, or where equipment that such personnel use in carrying out their jobs is stored for ready use. Ambulance services are included even if they only provide transportation services, but not if they are located at, and operated by, a hospital. If an independent ambulance service or EMS provider happens to be collocated with a hospital, it will be included in this dataset. The dataset includes both private and governmental entities.
This dataset is comprised completely of license free data.
The Fire Station dataset and the EMS dataset were merged into one working file. TGS processed as one file and then separated for delivery purposes.
Records with "-DOD" appended to the end of the [NAME] value are located on a military base, as defined by the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) military installations and military range boundaries.
Text fields in this dataset have been set to all upper case to facilitate consistent database engine search results.
All diacritics (e.g., the German umlaut or the Spanish tilde) have been replaced with their closest equivalent English character to facilitate use with database systems that may not support diacritics.
The currentness of this dataset is indicated by the [CONTDATE] field. Based upon this field, the oldest record dates from 01/07/2005 and the newest record dates from 08/12/2008
Use Cases: Use cases describe how the data may be used and help to define and clarify requirements.
1. An assessment of whether or not the total emergency medical services capability in a given area is adequate.
2. A list of resources to draw upon by surrounding areas when local resources have temporarily been overwhelmed by a disaster - route analysis can determine those entities that are able to respond the quickest.
3. A resource for Emergency Management planning purposes.
4. A resource for catastrophe response to aid in the retrieval of equipment by outside responders in order to deal with the disaster.
5. A resource for situational awareness planning and response for Federal Government events.
ID Check: The [ID] field is not blank and each of its values is unique.
Coordinate Check: Coordinates are not null or zero and the x and y fields match the shape.
Basic Address Check: Physical addresses were verified to be non blank and to not be a "PO Box", "General Delivery", "Highway Contract", or "Rural Route" address.
Highway Address without Type Check: Physical addresses containing the word "Highway" or "Route" were verified to also contain a type designator such as "State", "US", or "County", if one actually exists for the highway or route. These type designators are often missing from addresses, leading to confusion if more than one "Highway" of the given number exists in an area.
Basic Name Check: Entity name is not blank, is not the same as entity city, and has a minimum of 2 characters. Name does not contain punctuation characters that can interfere with database operations, such as " (quote) and * (asterisk).
City Check: Entity's [CITY] field is not blank, and entity is located within 25 miles of its tabular city as found in the NAVTEQ Named Places reference file.
State Check: The entity is located within its tabular state.
County FIPS to State Compare Check: The county represented by the tabular FIPS Code is actually in the state specified in the [STATE] field.
County Name to State Compare Check: The county represented by the tabular county name is actually in the state specified in the [STATE] field.
Basic Phone Check: All phone numbers (including the area code) are ten (10) numeric digits. Alphabetic characters have been converted to the corresponding numeric digit.
NPA_NXX Check: Area codes (sometimes called "Number Planning Areas", or NPA's) and central office codes (sometimes known as exchanges, or NXX's) were validated against data from the North American Number Planning Administration (NANPA). In some cases, NPA-NXX combinations did not show up in the NANPA data but were verified to work.
Area Code Distance Check: The entity's area code (NPA) is valid, and the entity is not more than 25 miles from its area code boundary, as defined by data from the North American Number Planning Administration (NANPA), unless TGS has previously verified that the phone number rings to a headquarters location or otherwise does not ring to the entity's location.
Zip Code Check: The zip code is five (5) or nine (9) numeric digits, is listed in the postal database, is in the same state as indicated by the entity's [STATE] value, and is not a PO Box only zip code.
Zip City Check: The entity's zip code and its city were verified to match according to the USPS Address Information System (AIS).
Zip Code Distance Check: The entity is located within 25 miles of its zip code boundary, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau's 1999 Zip Code file.
NAICS Code Check: The NAICS field is not blank, the NAICS Code is one of the accepted codes for this layer, the NAICS Description is an acceptable Index Entry for the NAICS Code, and certain key words in the entity name do not conflict with the NAICS Code.
Collocation Check: Entities with different addresses must not share the exact same geospatial location.
Geographic Spell Check: Words that appear in the entity name were checked against a standard English word list (and Spanish word list for entities in Puerto Rico). Words not appearing in these standard word lists were then checked against names appearing in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) of geographic features that are located within 25 miles of the entity. Proper names were manually reviewed for correct spelling.
Administrative Locations: Locations that serve only an administrative function (e.g., a business office) are intended to be excluded from this dataset. Locations that serve both an administrative function as well as an operational function are included in the dataset.
Records with "-DOD" appended to the end of the [NAME] value are located on a military base, as defined by the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) military installations and military range boundaries.
(Emergency Medical Services) not having a permanent location are depicted at the city/town hall or at the center of the town or service area if a city/town hall does not exist.
2) Entities were processed to determine or verify their name, physical address, city, state, five (5) digit zip code, phone number, and geospatial location. Entities that were contacted were also asked if they provided fire protection services, EMS services, or both. Entities not located on military bases were contacted and asked to describe their location relative to landmarks in reference data (mainly streets) and features visible in ortho imagery. A phone number was not available for some entities, so their information was verified using other verbal contacts made through a telephone call.
3) Due to a request made by the Department of Defense, TGS made every effort to not contact military bases starting 03/27/2007 and ending 05/28/2008. During this time, entities located on military bases were verified through alternate resources, such as maps and ortho imagery. These records have not been contacted by TGS, and therefore, do not have directions.
4) All text fields were set to all upper case.
5) Leading and trailing spaces were trimmed from all text fields.
6) Non printable and diacritic characters were removed from all text fields.
Sometimes an entity may report a city that is not accepted by the USPS, and although TGS has tried to replace those cities with an acceptable alternative, some of them may remain in this dataset.
NAICS Descriptions (and NAICS Codes) have been assigned based upon the entity's primary function, regardless of if that is the function that qualified it to be included in this dataset.
The values that this field is populated with came from individual states and have not been validated or checked by TGS.
The values that this field is populated with came from individual states and have not been validated or checked by TGS.
The values that this field is populated with came from individual states and have not been validated or checked by TGS.
The values that this field is populated with came from individual states and have not been validated or checked by TGS.
The values that this field is populated with came from individual states and have not been validated or checked by TGS.
The values that this field is populated with came from individual states and have not been validated or checked by TGS.
The values that this field is populated with came from individual states and have not been validated or checked by TGS.
The values that this field is populated with came from individual states and have not been validated or checked by TGS.
The values that this field is populated with came from individual states and have not been validated or checked by TGS.
The values that this field is populated with came from individual states and have not been validated or checked by TGS.
The values that this field is populated with came from individual states and have not been validated or checked by TGS.
The values that this field is populated with came from individual states and have not been validated or checked by TGS.
The values in this field have not been verified by TGS.
The values in this field have not been verified by TGS.
The values in this field have not been verified by TGS.