Hospital mapping: feedback on how to map emergency wards and official numbers

Communities België / Belgique / Belgien (Belgium)
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Hi,
I’m starting work on a new task for the National Crisis Centre, this time related to hospitals. It’s a complicated topic, so I’m looking forward to some feedback on this. I’m not sure I’ll even be possible, as the FPS Health doesn’t automatically allow using the data published on their site.

Core improvements

  • make sure there is an amenity=hospital. Put as much relevant info as possible on the outline of the site. If there’s several hospitals on the site, you can tag (a group of) buildings or have a node.
  • add the official reference numbers: ref:fps_health:recognition and ref:fps_health:campus to the hospital. This will allow us to more easily link data in our applications, and of course would make it easier to filter
  • add healthcare:speciality=general to indicate it’s a general hospital (AZ). This can of course by one of many specialties
  • add emergency=yes to the hospital if it has an emergency ward
  • add emergency_ward=limited|complete based on type of recognition (there are “Eerste opvang van spoedgevallen” and “Gespecialiseerde spoedgevallenzorgen”). This is a suggestion for an entirely new tag
  • add an entrance=yes node to the exact location of the emergency ward entrance and add emergency=emergency_ward_entrance. Do NOT use entrance=emergency as that’s for emergency exits

Optional additions

  • add more details to the emergency entrance
    • emergency_ward_entrance=walk-in: only for individuals / people who come independently to an emergency room
    • emergency_ward_entrance=rescue_service: only for rescue service (ambulance)
    • emergency_ward_entrance=all: default, no distinction between for who it is
  • if there is an exclusive service road: add emergency=designated (and remove service=emergency_access)
  • add contact info (especially website & phone)

Quality checks

  • if the emergency ward itself is mapped (not the entrance, but the part of the hospital designated to emergencies), tag it as healthcare=emergency_ward.
    (note: this tag is quite rare (N=70). There is a more common amenity=clinic + emergency=yes (N=1209), but this includes actual independent clinics that have an emergency service, which feels like a different thing. Avoid having it tagged as an amenity=hospital within the hospital)
  • check for amenity within amenity. Occasionally, this is correct, especially since sometimes there are independent hospitals or clinics within the larger site. At a minimum though, make sure the main hospital info is mapped on the outline of the entire site, and only absolutely necessary info is mapped on the buildings.

P.S. if you want to help the National Crisis Centre with better OSM data, have a look at our MapRoulette page. Most recent task is about schools without a name.

1 Like
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A new Crisis Centre MapRoulette challenge about this just dropped: assuring basic data quality of general hospitals in OSM, as well as adding their emergency ward entrances

This task will help us show a more detailed map, but more importantly, it will allow us to link several datasets we have based on a common ID (without having to rely only on geocoding of address data)

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Do parking lots need to be included?

In tielt it’s included: Way: ‪Sint-Andriesziekenhuis‬ (‪410063046‬) | OpenStreetMap

but in Izegem it’s not: Way: ‪Sint-Jozefskliniek‬ (‪278115204‬) | OpenStreetMap

(btw, maybe it’s just me. but the line about emergency_ward= : I had to re-read it a couple times to make sue that ‘eerste opvang’ is ‘limited’)

also: our local hospital has a huisartsenwachtpost connected to the hospital building (on the hospital grounds), should that be mapped then or something?

also also: emergency_ward_entrance=rescue_service There are gates for emegerncy vechiles to drop off patients inside of the garage section. This is only for ambulances OR vehicles who have clearance paper from a docter to drive to the ER. How should this garage door be mapped?

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Thanks for the help & the questions!

  • If the parking lot is owned & operated by the hospital, yes, I think they should be included.
  • about emergency_ward=limited|complete: you shouldn’t have to research that, it’s provided on click on the map of the individual task. Should I make that clearer? Or what was the doubt? I should document that tag on the wiki somewhere as well
  • yes, a “huisartsenwachtpost” can have its own tagging. But it’s not a priority for us at NCCN, and I haven’t looked into the data model yet. For now, I just tag them as amenity=doctors
  • that special entrance sounds like rescue_service to me. That extra option for regular people with special permission is, just that - the rescue_service gate being used for some extra services
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i just meant that it didn’t seem clear to me at first, maybe do:

add emergency_ward=limited|complete based on type of recognition (there are “Eerste opvang van spoedgevallen” (limited) and “Gespecialiseerde spoedgevallenzorgen” (complete) ). This is a suggestion for an entirely new tag

Thx for the answers,

one more question:
Spoed materniteit: do we tag those if so how (just spotted this one in waregem) Node: ‪Spoed materniteit‬ (‪8091417738‬) | OpenStreetMap