Locating patients in rural area's

[medicgirl05]

I've had farmer issues too. Had one guy that got stuck in a hay hauler...Turned out to be DOS but getting to him was an act of congress...No actual roads, no specific directions and approximately 7 miles out in the pasture. Plus when we got to him some family members were at the actual scene waiting for us and yelling that it took us too long, and we got in trouble because the ranch had exotic wildlife and we left the gates open after we went thru them... hope to never repeat that call.

[Guest ~~~]

Tip: Find locals close to the call location, it has worked for me before. They will know that area much better than you will. Let's take your red barn example, that's now white. A local near the call area will know if that barn was red at one point or another and will update you by saying the owner of the barn recently painted it white. I had a call very similar to that barn example. One of my very first calls as a division manager - driving by myself I got dispatched to a bls falls call and I was one of the very first on the scene, and I knew I was on the right road (which was around three miles long) and I could not find the house that oh so happened to be described as a two story blue house, and I kept driving by one house that looked one story but had second story vents (like if it were an attic), and half the siding ripped off it and was sort of blue (more like very light baby blue) and a few houses down there was a man mowing his lawn and I stopped to ask if I knew where Mr. Johnson lived (not the actual surname) and he pointed it out to the house with siding ripped off the side, as I suspected.

Will that work in a blizzard? Probably not, haven't seen anyone mowing their lawn in a blizzard haha. But it is for sure a pain, I especially hate houses hidden behind trees with a long driveway, mainly because it's hard to find houses off the side of the road where they have a six foot width driveway opening in the middle of a forest off a road that goes 55 MPH, so easy to drive right past - specially when your GPS thinks its five feet more down the road.

In a way it's not really our fault, nor is it the pt's or property owner, not like it's their fault they painted their barn white, or ripped the colored siding off their homes. The only constructive idea I have came up with is drive slowly and pay attention to your surroundings when getting close to the scene and don't be afraid to ask somebody standing outside, I wouldn't stop and go knock on someone's door, especially if it's something super serious. I also sometimes will wait for the police or local fire dept. to drive past me (they've done it) and I will follow them. My problem is that I work for a county ems service, so I can be dispatched to the next town over and have no clue where I am - that's if my GPS doesn't come through, but the local police and fire usually knows, but I will try to find the location the best I can, unless like I said if the fire dept or local police passes by me I will just tail them.

[Arctickat]

We're fortunate that prior to settlement Western Canada was surveyed and divided into 160 acre parcels of land which were considered a Quarter of a section of land. Each of these quarter sections measured 1/2 mile per side. A section of land is one square mile. There are 36 sections in a township, 6 miles by 6 miles. (not necessarily a town, just a descriptor). These townships are set into a grid, with the lateral lines (East/West) called the range lines and the vertical lines known as township lines. There are 24 townships in a Rural Municipality (County) 3 wide and 4 high. When we get dispatched to a rural location we are given the numerical address for that Quarter Section of land. An address might look like this, SW-23-36-10-W2. So, we start at the Right and move to the left to find the quarter section on a map. We're West of the 2nd Meridian (W2) Range line 10, Township line 36 narrows it down to a township (36 square miles) 23 represents which of the 36 sections of land we're looking for in that Township. SW indicates the Southwest quarter section of that section of land. At this point we've narrowed it to a 1/4 square mile area of land.

It's difficult to explain, but quite easy once you look up a couple of addresses.

Edited September 6, 2012 by Arctickat

[BushyFromOz]

We're fortunate that prior to settlement Western Canada was surveyed and divided into 160 acre parcels of land which were considered a Quarter of a section of land. Each of these quarter sections measured 1/2 mile per side. A section of land is one square mile. There are 36 sections in a township, 6 miles by 6 miles. (not necessarily a town, just a descriptor). These townships are set into a grid, with the lateral lines (East/West) called the range lines and the vertical lines known as township lines. There are 24 townships in a Rural Municipality (County) 3 wide and 4 high. When we get dispatched to a rural location we are given the numerical address for that Quarter Section of land. An address might look like this, SW-23-36-10-W2. So, we start at the Right and move to the left to find the quarter section on a map. We're West of the 2nd Meridian (W2) Township line 10, Range line 36 narrows it down to a township (36 square miles) 23 represents which of the 36 sections of land we're looking for in that Township. SW indicates the Southwest quarter section of that section of land. At this point we've narrowed it to a 1/4 square mile area of land.

It's difficult to explain, but quite easy once you look up a couple of addresses.

Thats wicked kat... a level of organisation that our surveyers didn't have.

Our mail numbering system changd a few years ago, previously we had RMB numbers, or Royal Mailbox Numbers which were the umbers attached to the property by the surveyer general for that parcel of land. the problem is that later on when those lands were subdivided they were suffixed with an alphabetical letter. A big cattle station that was lot number 783 (RMB 783) that has been subdivided over several generations ends up with a heap of different numbers with a suffix, so RMB 783A all the way to RMB783Z if its been divided enough

Then some genious decided thats not good enough, so they re-numbered everything, ditched the RB numbers after more than a century and gave them a number based on the distance from the intersection of the nearest main road. Main roads were numbered from the nearest town. 142 is therefore 1.42km, 1420 is 14.2km etc from said intersection or town - which is really easy to work with

The only problem is that all these recalcitrant farmers love their RMB numbers (its been in my family for 5 generations, i aint changing it for no gubberment!) and a lot of them havn't put the new system on their properties, so now we get the new numbers in the despatch but have to then find out their old RMB number, its a pain in the ass

[Arctickat]

I just noticed that I even have a map here. It may help to illustrate the idea. For example, A gentleman by the name of Raymond Ditter has his residence(a black dot) located 1.5 miles South of Little Nut Lake in the centre of the map. We would get his land location as SW-23-38-11-W2

Edited September 6, 2012 by Arctickat

[mountaineer48]

It's tough. Our county commissioners can't be bothered by petty things like road signs, so 75% of our roads aren't marked. Not always a problem unless you're out of your AO covering for another squad OR never been down that road before! Even if it's known road, unless it's for a frequent flyer, you may have trouble finding it. Less that 10-15% actually have the reflective address signs. Usually the best you can hope for is hardware store bought numbers stuck on the mailbox (never reflective) and the majority don't even have that.

Dispatch is never 100%. More often than not they have you going the wrong way. Sad to say, our county pays so poorly we usually get the ones fired from other dispatch centers! :-0

[Just Plain Ruff]

And now if you are using the Apple Maps for getting around, you may never get where you are trying to get.

Apple maps is turning out to be a bit of a PR nightmare with the release of the new Iphone.

[Richard B the EMT]

Just throwing into the mix, what if a #6 gets flipped over, reading now as a 9, or the reverse?

As for finding someone mowing the lawn during a snowstorm at 3 AM? Obviously not bloody likely. Perhaps I'm kind of biased against the farmland folk, but even here in New York City, you knock on a stranger's door at 3 AM, asking for directions, there's a chance you're going to be looking down the barrel of some kind of firearm, or being targeted by a pepperspray, or even in the crosshairs of a TASER, as some folks are just not that trusting, be it 3 AM or 3 PM. I've none of these (well, there is that Louisville Slugger, and a 9 iron golf club), and I'm friendly...to a suspicious point.

By the way, I noted that no one responded to my question of what is at 350 Fifth Avenue, NYC. That's the Empire State Building.

[Just Plain Ruff]

.

By the way, I noted that no one responded to my question of what is at 350 Fifth Avenue, NYC. That's the Empire State Building.

Not according to Apple Maps. It's the staten Island Ferry. The PR nightmare just keeps on getting worse and worse. Sarcasm off

[Richard B the EMT]

Empire State Building

http://www.esbnyc.com/buy_tickets.asp?gclid=CL7-q9ntxbICFYFo4AodJiAARg

Staten Island Ferry ...

http://www.siferry.com/

I stand by my statement of addresses.