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| Geocoding Frequently Asked Questions |
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Critchlow services for the New Zealand Ministry of Health and other Health and Disability Services (H & DS) organisations.
Critchlow have been contracted by the Ministry of Health to provide geocoding services to the health sector. If you are a health and disability services organisation, you may qualify for geocoding and/or a copy of Critchlow's geocoding application. To find out whether you are eligible for Critchlow geocoding services or GeoStan NZ, please contact geocoding@critchlow.co.nz with the following details:
If you are experiencing problems with installing or operating Critchlow's geocoding engine, please consult the Frequently asked questions page. If your question is not answered there, please contact: support@critchlow.co.nz FAQ Page: CONTENTS General: Geocoding
General: What is geocoding? Geocoding is the process of assigning a geographical location (X and Y co-ordinates) to records in a table based on location (eg address) information in a mappable database. This is achieved by matching each record against a referential database. Critchlow are able to take an address and assign X and Y co-ordinates. We are then able to map the address and acquire statistical information from that location. Why do I need geocoding? Once a record is geocoded, statistical information can be acquired. The Ministry of Health's CBF project uses geocoding to acquire a 1-5 Quintile (a deprivation decile (1-10) value that is halved and rounded to the nearest whole number) to determine the area of deprivation for a particular patient. This assists Healthpac in funding a PHO (though this does not determine overall funding). Geocoding: What is the correct format for an address? An address should have a street address, a suburb and/or a city. These three elements should be placed in separate fields. Any other information should be placed in another field by itself. A street address should have a street number (example format: 1 Smith Street) in order for Critchlow to achieve an exact match. It is important to distinguish between a postal address and a physical address. A postal address is unable to be geocoded by Critchlow as it does not accurately reflect where a patient lives. For example, PO BOX 123, Auckland, does not allow us to pinpoint where a patient lives nor can it lead to information about a patient's deprivation value. In order to accurately assign a patient's deprivation value, the physical address (where the patient lives) is required. Critchlow is currently working with the Ministry of Health if this information is unable to be acquired from the patient. A patient address has the correct format but it was returned to me for correction by my PHO. What is wrong with it? These are some of the reasons why a correctly formatted address cannot be geocoded: Street name: The road name may not exist in the suburb and/or city provided. The following explains why this may be the case:
Location: Please try and be as specific as possible when entering in either a suburb, town and/or city name. The more information relating to the location of the address, the better. Remember that rural delivery numbers (eg RD 1) and post office box type addresses cannot be used in geocoding. Do I have to include a suburb? A suburb is preferable if you live in an urban area. In rural areas, all that is required is your town name. If no suburb is supplied, there may be duplicate streets found within a city boundary (eg there is more than one Queen Street within the Auckland City region) and it may not be possible to determine the correct street if this is the case. Do I have to include a city? A city is required and only optional if a suburb has been supplied. Because of duplicate suburb names throughout New Zealand, a valid city helps ensure the correct address is obtained. For example, Avondale is a suburb in Auckland and also a suburb in Christchurch. Also, if you are in a rural area and have supplied a town name, you do not need to include a city. In some areas of the country (Rodney/Kaipara districts so far) we have altered the formatting so you may enter your town name in the city field and leave the suburb field of your PMS blank. How do I include unit/flat numbers in an address? Units and flats may be entered in the following way: 1/3 Smith Street 1-3 Smith Street 1\3 Smith Street The following address: 1-3 Cuba Street, Wellington Central, Wellington will be geocoded to: 3 Cuba Street, Wellington Central, Wellington with a unit number of 1. Separators between a unit number and street number allowed by GeoStan NZ are: - (dash), \ (forward slash), / (back slash). Please ensure that there are no spaces between the separator and the flat and house numbers. What abbreviations is an address allowed to have? We are able to recognise common street type abbreviations such as Ave, Rd, St, Pl, and Cres. SH may be used for State Highway. A complete list is included in the Data entry guide that is included with every copy of Critchlow's geocoding engine. Please contact us if you do not have the latest version (2007). Unfortunately, some locally known abbreviations are currently not recognized by our geocoding engine (eg UMO for Upper Moutere, NEV for North East Valley in Dunedin). What can I do to ensure a particular address is geocoded? Ensure that is has a street number, a street name that is spelled correctly, a suburb and/or a city. Ensure, if possible, that the road name is the legal name. If an address has all these elements, there is nothing more than can be done to ensure that address is "correct". Remember that while an address may be correct and mail is delivered to this address, this is no guarantee that it may be geocoded. What are "valid" suburb and city names to use? There is currently no national definition of suburbs. The government maintains a register of official place names, however this does not define the extent of the place or a relationship to other places eg suburbs to cities. When a city council produces a definitive dataset of suburb boundaries (such as Wellington), Critchlow ensure that these changes are reflected in the datasets used for geocoding. Can I use rural delivery numbers? Rural delivery numbers (eg RD 1, RD 2) are only useful in ensuring mail is delivered correctly. Because there is currently no geographic information relating to these numbers, they are ignored by the geocoding process. Can I use rapid addressing? For rural addressing, Critchlow use Landonline address points. These are supplied to us by Land Information New Zealand, and it is a nationwide dataset containing individual points for addresses in New Zealand. Land Information New Zealand is only able to include address points where a District Council has notified them of an existing address. Therefore there is no guarantee that a specific rapid number exists in the current data that is used for geocoding. Critchlow receive monthly updates of Landonline address points, therefore data is continually being updated. An address is rural and doesn't have a city, what do I put in the city field? You may enter into the city column the region name, eg Southland. However a lot of towns in New Zealand do not require an entry in the city field to geocode correctly, eg Carterton. How come a street number isn't recognised when there are clearly houses on that street? The address number may not exist in the data, even if it exists in reality. Critchlow use Land Information New Zealand's Landonline address points for rural addressing. In turn, LINZ acquire their data from district councils. For every rural address in New Zealand, there should be a corresponding address point, however this is not always the case and there may be some missing. With the implementation of Rapid Addressing, a lot more rural addresses are able to be geocoded. Please let us know if there are particular addresses that you cannot geocode and we will assist you as much as possible to resolve these. What if I have something like 1a or 2c as the street number? Flat information such as a, b c should be joined to the house number, with no spaces between the number and the letter, eg 1b Smith Street, not 1 b Smith Street. I have been returned a large number of addresses to correct from my PHO, yet many of them look correct. Why have they been returned? Check for spelling errors. GeoStan scores the changes it makes to an address and assigns an uncertainty code accordingly. The more changes it makes to achieve a match, the higher the uncertainty becomes. In other cases, we may not have the data to geocode a particular address. Why is the suburb returned not the same one that I use on a postal envelope? See question: What are "valid" suburb names and city names to use? Installation: Can I install more than one configuration of GeoStan NZ on the same computer? It is not advisable. Always uninstall GeoStan NZ before installing another version. How do I uninstall GeoStan NZ? You should always remove programs from your computer using the Add/Remove Programs function in your control panel. Click on the start menu, then settings, then control panel. Double click on the Add/Remove Programs and remove all components of GeoStan (Data Install, Deprivation Index Lookups etc) I want to install GeoStan Server/Client on my network but my workstations don't have CD-ROM drives! GeoStan Workstation is too large to be shipped on floppy disc. Insert the Workstation CD into any PC with a CD-ROM drive, then share that drive so it can be seen over the network. GeoStan NZ Workstation can then be installed over the network. I get a General Exception Error when trying to geocode on my server. What is wrong? This issue has arisen where GeoStan Server is installed on the same PC as Medtech. Because of the relationship between Medtech an dGeoStan, MedTech requires GeoStan Workstation to "talk" to the GeoStan Server. As there is only GeoStan Server installed on the PC, Medtech cannot connect to GeoStan. I've installed GeoStan NZ. How do I know if it's working? To test that GeoStan is working, use the Installation Tester that is installed automatically when installing GeoStan Workstation or GeoStan Standalone. Please note that there is no way to test that GeoStan is working on a Geostan Server PC until Workstation is subsequently installed and tested. You may access the Installation Tester through the green flag icon on your desktop (placed there when GeoStan Workstation or Standalone is installed) or go to: Start >> Programs >> Critchlow >> Geostan NZ Installation Tester. Once the Installation Tester appears on the screen, type in an address and click on [Run Test]. If the Installation Tester reports a SUCCESS when geocoding a record, but you are encountering errors geocoding through your PMS software, please contact your PMS vendor's help desk. What if the CD does not autorun? When you insert your GeoStan CD into the CD-ROM drive, the installation program should start automatically. If this is not the case, you will have to run the installation program manually. To do so:
What configuration of GeoStan NZ do I need? If you require geocoding on only a few computers (say, less than four), you may use GeoStan Standalone. If you use Profile or VIP you can install GeoStan Standalone on your server. If you have a large number of computers that require geocoding functionality and you are using MedTech32 or MedCen, you should use GeoStan Server/Client. GeoStan Server/Client cannot be used with Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server because of these operating systems' security settings. If you have such an operating system on your network, you will need to use GeoStan Standalone. If you are a Macintosh user, GeoStan is currently not compatible with these systems, however there is a Web Service that your PMS system may use to access geocoding functionality. If you require access to the Web Service, we can supply you with a username and password to allow access. Why can't GeoStan NZ Server/Client work on a Windows XP or Windows 2003 server operating system? This is due to the additional security settings installed by Microsoft for these operating systems. We are currently developing a solution to resolve this and later this year will have a geocoding engine release fully compatible with Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server and Windows Vista. Data updates How often do I get data updates for GeoStan? GeoStan data updates occur monthly for the health sector. Please let us know if you are not receiving monthly updates and we will add you to the list. On what PC do I need to install the data updates on? GeoStan data updates only need to be done on PCs with GeoStan Standalone installed, or GeoStan Server. When I try to install my data, I get a message saying I have no space left on my hard drive, what's happening? The data update program for GeoStan makes a backup of the previous data just in case something goes wrong with the install. Therefore, while the data is approx. 470 mb of data, you will need double that space for the install to continue. If you have more than 1 gigabyte free of space, yet the installation program still comes up with the message, try to copy the entire contents of the CD onto your PC and then run the setup.exe file from there. Can the updates be centralised online rather than a CD being sent to me? Critchlow currently supply updates on CD as per our current contract with the Ministry of Health. The Ministry is investigating the feasibility of Critchlow providing an alternative online service. How can I update my postcodes and is GeoStan using the latest postcodes from NZ Post? GeoStan incorporates the quarterly release of postcodes from NZ Post. GeoStan returns updated postcodes with every address geocoded, however whether this is implemented in your PMS is up to your vendor. If your postcode is not updated when an address is geocoded, please contact your PMS vendor for support. What are quintiles and how is it determined? Quintiles are based on deprivation decile scores calculated by Peter Crampton at the University of Otago's School of Medicine and Health Sciences. These, in turn, are based on a number of criteria from the New Zealand Census. As such, quintiles are currently based on 2001 Census data and are due to be updated with 2006 Census data sometime this year. |
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