Locating patients in rural area's

[yakc130]

Over here, there are very few street addresses. They have only started putting them up in the last few years, because the city has grown so much. We will get a call and be dispatched to an area. Think of it as getting dispatched for an MI in some place like Brooklyn, or Queens.

Many calls that we go on we have to go stage at an area on one of the bases we cover, and wait for the MP's to show up and lead us. Unfortunately, they get rotated out about every six months, or just as they are getting to know the area.

[RuralKSEMS]

Several years ago, our county made uniform addresses mandatory for the county. Starting at the far southwest corner, every road and cross road is either numbered or lettered at the mile depending on which direction the road is going. If it is a road that is on a quarter mile it gets a number after it (A2 for example). Each house is required to have a reflective sign at roadside with the proper county assigned address on it. Helps with fire, ems and police dispatch. I still sometimes have trouble finding and address when I drive (I've only lived here for a 10 years) so I will ask one of the "old timers" where I'm going if I'm driving. Otherwise, all of our AO's know pretty much where we are going or I'll wait for police/ fire to get ahead of me and I'll follow them.