You ’ve Got to Know the Territory to Find the Patient

Three valuable skills for locating patients every time My dog and I had our morning walk today through a neighborhood I’d been meaning to get to know better. It’s a new development, an offshoot from a more established area. I started to turn down Abbey Mill Boulevard, but Google Maps set me straight, sending us a half-mile further to Abbey Mill Drive. I derived three benefits from this jaunt: a happy dog, some good exercise and a better map of the area in my head. Who hasn’t been blindsided by similar road names when traveling to the scene? (It’s usually at night, in a blizzard and coming from the less-traveled direction.) Few feelings are more helpless than knowing a case is time-critical and being unable to find that patient. Foremost among the many nonmedical skills of a capable and efficient field provider is actually arriving at the patient’s side. In the age of GPS and electronic navigation systems, an onboard guide usually tells you when to turn with a reassuring message that “your destination is on the right.” But not always … and there’s the value in knowing your territory in your bones. What do you do when technology doesn’t cooperate, is inaccurate or isn’t available? My cousin lives 17 miles outside her Montana town, where her neighbors had to post a sign that reads, “Go back, your GPS is wrong,” because tourists were consistently—wrongly—guided to their house by faulty electronic devices. If you’re relying only on technology, what ...
Source: JEMS Operations - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Columns Operations Source Type: news