Don't Be Part of the 1%

Where are we?

Finding an emergency can be a bit like playing the lottery. Sometimes everything goes perfectly and we find the house without any trouble. Other days we are just baffled. There is a long list of things that can go wrong:

• The house/mailbox has no markings
• The mailbox number is covered with snow
• The mailbox is missing a number
• The mailbox is marked only on the end and not the sides
• The mailbox number is unreadable
• The mailbox only has a last name listed on it
• We drove past the house (see above) and the next neighbor isn't for half a mile
• A panicked caller gave the wrong address
• It raining/snowing/sleeting/ooblecking and we missed the marking
• We were dispatched to the wrong town. Did you know that there is a Mountain View Rd/Dr in Richmond, Jericho, Bolton and Williston?

We realized that we had a problem since we started tracking this problem back in April. Fifteen percent of the time our response was delayed due to a poorly marked address. Often we had first responders that went through the trouble of locating an address prior to arrival so that number may be even higher. The 1% of calls that had a big delay (>5 minutes) could actually make a difference in a patient's outcome if they were presenting with a serious problem.

We decided we wanted to offer reflective, green, 911 address signs. Although this is not a new concept we wanted to make this the easiest process anyone could imagine and make cost a non-issue for anyone that wanted a sign. 

We were fortunate that the Ketover family of Richmond wanted to fund a project that would have an impact on the community. One stipulation of their donation is that signs should be free for participants in Medicaid, WIC and Dr. Dynasaur. Now that a funding source was available we just needed to figure out how to keep costs down.

Mike mounts a sign in Richmond

We purchased sign blanks with high intensity prismatic sheeting and reflective numbers in bulk quantities so we could realize some cost savings. Next we implemented online ordering (google forms) and payment (Paypal). We also offered free mounting to wooden mailbox posts for anyone that has a power tool deficiency. 

Much better

So far we've sold 27 signs (5 were given away for free) with very little marketing effort. We are slowing down our marketing operation because we ran out of 2s much faster than any other number but we should be fully operational again in early January.

For anyone that would like to order you can go to our online order form. Our supply of 2s should be replenished by early January and we'll take care of our backlog of 2 containing addresses.

Please remember that no sign lasts forever. Even well made signs generally only have a life of 7-10 years. Take a look at your mailbox today and order a sign if it isn't well marked. If you have any questions or have a challenging marking situation get in touch with me and we can work out a solution.