Chronic Lift Assists

[x635 4,066]

Interesting articles. I've seen this firsthand, and it's sad. There's not much you can really do in some cases but keep responding.

 

Quote

Firefighters respond to one home 1,100 times in three years

 

http://pix11.com/2016/08/12/firefighters-respond-to-one-home-1100-times-in-three-years/

[SECTMB 612]

Is there no other City agency or volunteer agency like Red Cross that could send someone over twice a day to assist?  How about a hospital style bed that they could maybe utilize themselves? How about renting out a room to someone who could assist? 

 

At least send over the two FF in a command car rather than tying up the engine. If a call comes in they can meet up with the engine.

[ex-commish 490]

Knowing people personally in similair situations this is both sad and also a burden on the FD who I am sure responds with the greatest of professionalism regardless of how many times they are called but this doesn't seem to be emergency requests rather routine calls and now with this being made public how many more people are going to call for lift assists because they know when they come the FD will come. 

Edited August 12, 2016 by ex-commish

[bad box 371]

Didn't Obama Care solve everyone's health related needs?

[vodoly 535]

Here in Englewood Cliff's PD & the on duty crew from Englewood  hospital respond to them

[nfd2004 750]

On ‎8‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 1:08 PM, SECTMB said:

Is there no other City agency or volunteer agency like Red Cross that could send someone over twice a day to assist?  How about a hospital style bed that they could maybe utilize themselves? How about renting out a room to someone who could assist? 

 

At least send over the two FF in a command car rather than tying up the engine. If a call comes in they can meet up with the engine.

 

That is an interesting point. In particular the part about "renting out a room to someone who could assist". That was exactly the case recently I know of.

 

An honest, trustworthy woman, moved in to care for an elderly person. She was NOT a certified CNA, and did NOT drive a car. But she was there to take care of that person and a family member did the shopping etc, or to cover for a day off that this caregiver was given. She was NOT employed through any agency. She took very good care of this elderly person until the person passed away. The problem for her was once she passed away, she was out of work. With no other skills and no drivers license, she was then had no place to go.

 

 As a result, she had to move out of state where I believe she is now living with her son. She is willing to work but few will offer her the chance.

[AFS1970 504]

I remember two cases from my VFD days of chronic lift assists.

 

The first was an elderly gentleman named Mo. He was mentally sharp as a tack but his body had given out on him. He walked with a walker, but that did not make it any easier for him. He was barely verbal. He had a live in health aide, who simply was not strong enough to lift him up. So almost every evening he would get up from the chair and with the help of his aide and his walker he would make it to the bathroom. That was about it for him, he lacked the stamina to get off the toilet and go to bed. His aide would call us and we would go help. Yes it was repetitive, although rarely did it interfere with other calls. I vividly remember that I could see on his face how embarrassed this grown man, who had raised a family, felt to have a crew of younger men come in and help him off the toilet. I did my best to reassure him, but I never felt that he was even a little bit OK with needing us like that. He eventually was unable to stay alone and the house was sold. Oddly enough we used it as a drill house during the new owner's renovations. I remember thinking of it as Mo's house even as I was cutting the roof off.

 

The second was an elderly couple. The wife had a stroke many years before. She was non-verbal and spent most of the day in a chair, watching TV. The husband was frail but did his best to care for her. Their daughter came over as much as possible. Their insurance paid for an aide for half a day, so the aide would get her out of bed and dressed and into the chair, then go home after lunch. As she was not mobile that left her husband and daughter to get her back to bed, which they could not do alone. She was heavy and unable to help at all. We responded almost every night. Most days this required using a scoop stretcher to move her. The daughter came by the firehouse looking for help with the insurance company. We were more than happy to give copies of the reports to her. We worked with her and they finally decided they would pay for a lift, so the daughter could get her into bed. It was better than nothing I suppose. However we were still there to help her a few times until they were finally able to argue successfully for an aide at night.

 

So there are other agencies available, but they will not be paid for so the families are in a bind. When they are paid for there is no guarantee the help is adequate. Besides everyone knows when you call the FD will show up and handle the problem.

[dwcfireman 656]

Speaking for the volunteer realm, these chronic lift assist calls are no different that the chronic automatic alarms.  They keep coming in day after day, week after week, and eventually you'll find that fewer and fewer responders are showing up for these calls.  The underlying problem here is volunteer burnout.  One can only respond to the same alarm so many times before they can no longer put up with it.  I'm not condoning a volunteer's action by not responding to these situations, but it's a reality that fewer firefighters and EMT's tend to respond to the "BS" calls as they become more and more frequent.  I've seen this first hand in ALL of the volunteer agencies that I have been involved with, whether it's the same old auto alarm at a given location, or the same old call to the doctor's office for an EMS assist, or even the same old lift assist at the same address.

 

Within the the career realm, it's just a little bit different.  We're already on shift.  We respond with the whole crew as we always do, whether you're on an ambulance or on a fire engine.  But, the same burnout is there.  You go to the same alarm time after time, you respond to the same call again and again.  But, this is where the complacency starts.  And complacency isn't just within the realm of the paid personnel.  Just look at the last paragraph.  The volunteers have the same problem.

 

So what's the fix to the problem?  I don't know.  But I really do like what SECTMB said:

On 8/12/2016 at 1:08 PM, SECTMB said:

Is there no other City agency or volunteer agency like Red Cross that could send someone over twice a day to assist?

This is totally a possibility!  Or...

 

On 8/12/2016 at 8:45 PM, bad box said:

Didn't Obama Care solve everyone's health related needs?

Wouldn't it be nice if the Affordable Healthcare Act provided a system to take care of the people who really, really need it?

 

The bottom line is there is no immediate fix.  We can dwell on what is the right answer all day, but we're still responding to these alarms.  I think it would be great if there was a system or service to essentially deal with non-emergency medical calls.  But then again, what do you define as emergency and non-emergency?  What if the 99th lift assist call is actually the same person in cardiac arrest?  What if that 99th auto alarm is a working fire?  THAT'S WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO!  We dwell on the "what if" to ensure that people and their property can be saved.  Are there remedies to make our jobs easier?  Of course!  Unfortunately, it's just not up to us at this point of how those remedies are placed (at least on the EMS side).

[gamewell45 258]

On 8/12/2016 at 1:08 PM, SECTMB said:

At least send over the two FF in a command car rather than tying up the engine. If a call comes in they can meet up with the engine.

In my department, unless you are a paramedic, EMT or under the supervision of either, you cannot  lay a finger on a patient, so we have to wait until the arrival of either.

[dwcfireman 656]

2 hours ago, gamewell45 said:

In my department, unless you are a paramedic, EMT or under the supervision of either, you cannot  lay a finger on a patient, so we have to wait until the arrival of either.

 

What about if you are a CFR?  Or first-aid/CPR certified?  It would be kind of silly to show up to a cardiac arrest and not conduct CPR just because an EMT or medic isn't present (IMO).  If you don't mind, could you clarify if your department's policy pertains to certain situations like the topic in this thread, or if it is a broad policy for all medical calls.

[gamewell45 258]

1 hour ago, dwcfireman said:

 

What about if you are a CFR?  Or first-aid/CPR certified?  It would be kind of silly to show up to a cardiac arrest and not conduct CPR just because an EMT or medic isn't present (IMO).  If you don't mind, could you clarify if your department's policy pertains to certain situations like the topic in this thread, or if it is a broad policy for all medical calls.

You raise a good point, which I failed to post in my initial post; our Policy is Paramedic, EMT or under the supervision of one; the one exception to the rule is if the call involves CPR and you are currently a holder of a valid card, then you may actually engage in administering CPR.  Otherwise hands off.

[dwcfireman 656]

On 8/18/2016 at 2:04 AM, gamewell45 said:

You raise a good point, which I failed to post in my initial post; our Policy is Paramedic, EMT or under the supervision of one; the one exception to the rule is if the call involves CPR and you are currently a holder of a valid card, then you may actually engage in administering CPR.  Otherwise hands off.

 

Thank you for clearing that up.  I can see where the policy has it's necessity, where you don't want non-EMS workers o touch a patient due to a different level of training.  But, as far as the concern of chronic lift assists at particular locations, if there is no injury, then is it really an EMS run?  Generally speaking, as per this thread, we're not enlisting medical protocol, per se, for most lift assists, so why are we treating every person that falls down as a patient rather than a person in need?  I completely understand if the person falls and breaks an arm or a hip (EMS is needed), but what about the old lady who fell and just can't get back up on her own (as in she is not going to the hospital and just needs to get off the floor)?