Abstract

Emergency Ambulance Response: Determining Rural vs Urban Status
Track: Fire, Rescue, and EMS
Authors: Joshua Smith, Leslie Ray, Maria Pena, Ryan Smith, Sanaa Abedin, Amelia Kenner-Brininger, Barbara Stepanski, Isabel Corcos

In San Diego County, standard response times for ambulances are 10 min in urban settings and 30 min in rural settings. In parts of the county the distinction between rural/urban is blurred. Zip codes are not adequate as many cover both areas. To adequately assess our county’s response time adherence we used population density mapping at the Census Block level to determine areas of the county that were urban/rural. Ambulance response locations were then geocoded to determine appropriate standards