Finding the Blind Spots: Using Geospatial Analysis to Optimize EMS Coverage Before Trauma Patients Die

BackgroundTraumatic injury is the fourth leading cause of death nationally; rural residents are twice as likely to die from injury as urban counterparts. On-scene mortality coverage gaps across regional trauma systems remain poorly characterized.ObjectiveTo identify geographic blind spots and time-critical, spatially advantageous on-scene deaths (2019-2023) that fall outside modeled 10-minute drive-time service areas across seven North Central state trauma regions.MethodsThis retrospective analysis geocoded death certificate records to ZIP Code Tabulation Areas and modeled 10-minute drive-time service areas in ArcGIS Online. EMS agency headquarters and staffing classification (volunteer, mixed, paid) were obtained from the DHS EMS Service Map. Candidate sites were identified by maximizing coverage of weighted, uncovered death centroids per region.ResultsOf 11,868 decedents (60.7% male; mean age 64.4 years [SD 25.6]; 49.9% fall, 26.4% firearm), 7815 had geocodable addresses. Coverage ranged from 53.5% (Western) to 87.0% (North Central); 5492 (70.3%) fell within a 10-minute service area. One candidate site per region could extend modeled coverage to 4-321 additional death locations (480 combined). Volunteer-dominant regions, where 63% of agencies reported scheduling gaps, had the lowest coverage, suggesting headquarters presence overstates availability.ConclusionGeospatial analysis identified actionable blind spots where one additional EMS resource per region could extend modeled coverage to hundreds of death locations. Because these are modeled coverage gains, not demonstrated mortality reductions, and depend in volunteer-dominant regions on staffing reliability that placement alone cannot resolve, the identified locations warrant further evaluation, not presumed survival benefit.