Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:
The Batavia Fire Department is asking the city council to adopt an ordinance allowing it to charge senior communities and assisted-care facilities for helping uninjured people who fall and can’t get up. The committee of the whole unanimously supported the proposal and sent it to the council for a vote.
Fire Chief Randy Deicke said about one-third of lift-assistance calls the department receives are from assisted-care facilities. When firefighters arrive, a staff member is often waiting for them rather than assisting the resident who has fallen. When firefighters assist in the lift, the liability goes to the city.
He proposed the department charge facilities $250 for each call to alleviate that liability. If a firefighter is injured while assisting someone, the responsibility to the city could include time off due to injury, overtime, and workman’s compensation. The assists, which take about 20 minutes each, remove a fire unit from service. They usually will send an engine, with three
respondersfirefighters, because they don’t want to take an ambulance out of service. If a unit is on the scene when another call comes in, they will complete the assist. If a fire call comes in while they are on the way, the unit will break off and respond to that call.The fire department assisted in 232 total lifts in 2017, 247 in 2018, and 324 in 2019. Lift assists at care facilities increased from 72 to 135 during that time.
The plan is to only charge staffed facilities, not care communities that only have one staff person at the front desk. There is no plan to charge for lift assists at private residences.
Tri-City Ambulance began charging staffed facilities $250 for lift assists recently and the fire chief believes that neighboring Geneva and St. Charles will be charging that same amount soon.
#1 by Dan on February 16, 2020 - 12:46 PM
I have worked on both sides of this,, as an EMT and firefighter and as a CNA.
Most assisted living facilities have a LPN in charge and sometimes an RN. Most of these nurses have no experience in emergency first aid. There may be a fracture involved. Perhaps some trauma.
Who would you trust to move a patient? A nurse who pushes pills and does paperwork or someone in emergency services who gave extensive first aid knowledge?
Sure, there is liability involved. But what if the patient broke their hip or other trauma and then staff lifted them?
Might as well be safe with the fire dept.
#2 by MABAS 21 on February 16, 2020 - 9:56 AM
Gentlemen, enough already!!!!! I am getting a headache reading all of the name calling and insults here. We are all supposed to be fire service professionals along with the fans (buffs) on here, so act like adults! We are all allowed to post comments, so lets be civil before the opportunity ceases. Whether we realize it or not many civilians, some from other nations and unrelated to the fire service, read this blog and imagine what their opinions are of us after reading these posts…
#3 by Tim on February 16, 2020 - 9:14 AM
Mike, my feelings aren’t hurt. I’ve been accused of not having any. I just wonder if your mouth hurts from sticking your foot in it.
#4 by WestsideTruck on February 15, 2020 - 3:15 PM
No hard feelings. All that was missing here was a kitchen table, blue shirts and a pot of coffee. We live for this. And I’m thinking the webmaster has a sense of humor because these posts were approved faster than a recliner exit for a job!
And let’s be honest. The medics are the real heroes.
#5 by harry on February 15, 2020 - 3:08 PM
I would say that the fd would be better off lifting the patient then an assited living place where they could hurt the patient
#6 by Mike on February 15, 2020 - 2:57 PM
Never mind, found the part about leaving the ambulance home. My apologies.
#7 by Mike on February 15, 2020 - 2:55 PM
Ok hero. Show me where it says in the article that they’re not gonna send an ambo on theses. The way it’s written is they’re sending an ambo and the engine. Please enlighten me. And yes the tower Ladder I work on has a pump. Big deal. I guess you’re more of a hero then the rest of us are then. Whatever you say Tim. You’re still upset because of a disagreement over a stupid post about Elgin and staffing and apparatus. I hope you didn’t lose sleep or have to talk to someone because your feelings were hurt.
#8 by Tim on February 15, 2020 - 2:44 PM
Westside Truck don’t be offended. Mike has a tendancy to make comments without comprehending the entire post.
#9 by WestsideTruck on February 15, 2020 - 2:40 PM
I read the article buddy boy and it states “They usually will send an engine, with three firefighters, because they don’t want to take an ambulance out of service.” Maybe Harry can correct me if I’m wrong but an engine at $250 is still $250 and the Tricities can stay in quarters feet up!
Sorry my handle sets you off. I wanted to be a little more creative than well, you know. I bet your truck has a pump.
#10 by Mike on February 15, 2020 - 2:24 PM
I did read the article pal. It said towards the bottom tri-cities ambulance charges 250.00 per assist. Tri-cities is the ambulance service Batavia uses. Now the fire department wants to charge. 250×2=500. I’m not sure where you got I’m insulting volunteers with my comment. I’m directing it towards you and you only. I guess I should change my screen name to East side truck hero too.
#11 by WestsideTruck on February 15, 2020 - 1:36 PM
Mike, c’mon man! All this bc I pointed out you didn’t read the article?
We are in the business of burdens and liabilities and if a dept wants to force a business that wants to collect money from people into carrying some liability then that’s a good thing! I also did not imply that an invalid assist did not require an ALS vehicle with a signed refusal. EMS makes the money so us awesome truck guys can have all the cool tools! 🙂
And don’t insult the more than 75% of volunteers in America with mudflap insults, they can’t all be like Mike the Medic!
#12 by Mike on February 15, 2020 - 12:39 PM
West side I am on this job, so I know how it goes. Yes fining for nuisance alarms is good and yes it works sometimes. This isn’t a nuisance alarm. This is a medical assist. Many hospital systems in northern Illinois are forcing their medics to do refusals on lift assists now because of people on blood thinners and other issues. Nursing homes can’t and won’t do lift assists or move people because their insurance carriers tell them no. They don’t want staff to get hurt or risk injuring the resident. Plus they want us to medically evaluate those patients so all the burden and liability is lifted off of the nursing the home and it’s insurance carrier. That means if you pick grandma up and she has an issue later the family can’t sue the nursing home or it’s insurance carrier because they called us. Btw with a screen name of west side truck and telling people they should be in this job without knowing who they are just goes to show what a handjob you probably are. What are you a west side truck on? The west side of East mud flap, Illinois.
#13 by Scott L on February 15, 2020 - 11:40 AM
Great idea. To often fire depts respond to these places with multiple so called health care personnel just standing looking at the fallen person, not willing to help them. If I had a family member in one of these facilities I would be infuriated with the amount of money they pay for these places, just for the useless staff to stand idly by and do absolutely nothing. They abuse this service and tax the FD’s on a daily bases. I wish they did this out by me
#14 by WestsideTruck on February 15, 2020 - 11:07 AM
Mike, you have to read the entire article. There will not be two vehicles responding to the invalid assist. Batavia will be sending an engine or truck, only. Which will cost $250. Those of us in the fire service know the significant burden these types of calls place on FD services. Fining gets corporate attention, whether it’s an AFA or an invalid assist, problems usually get corrected when money is involved. Assuming you are only a tax payer, this benefits you because an ambulance is still available for your emergency should one occur. This is good and will improve service to Batavia’s residents.
#15 by Mike on February 15, 2020 - 9:45 AM
So tri-cities ambulance already charges 250.00 per assist and now the city is going to charge. So a lift assist will be 500.00 that the facility won’t pay. They’ll pass the bill onto the resident instead possibly causing a financial hardship on that resident. There has to be another way to fix this.