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 responders firefighters, 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.

Tags: Batavia Fire Department, fire department to charge assisted living facilities for lift assists