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Illinois Department Refuses Non-Emergency Lift Of 700lb. Patient
DEAN OLSEN
The State Journal-Register
A Rockford-area ambulance company owner is calling the Springfield Fire Department unprofessional and insensitive after the department refused to help the company's paramedics lift a 700-pound patient into her Springfield home after she was discharged from a northern Illinois hospital Friday.
"I was just stunned at that overall attitude," said Robert Esmond, owner of Mercy Ambulance Service in Loves Park. "To me, it's short-changing the citizens. There shouldn't be problems with agencies helping each other out."
Esmond said he never before was refused free assistance from a municipal fire department when his paramedics needed help lifting an obese patient into the patient's house.
Department Policy
Deputy Springfield Fire Chief Greg Surbeck said department policy requires that requests to help lift, transfer or transport patients in non-emergencies be turned down. The policy dates from March 2009, he said.
Several firefighters had received workers' compensation because of back injuries suffered while lifting obese patients under those circumstances, he said.
In one sense, Surbeck said he empathized with Esmond, because the fire department and medical-transport organizations are dealing with the ramifications of a nationwide epidemic of obesity.
Esmond said he has transported discharged patients to their homes in Rockford, Chicago's suburbs and several downstate communities. Fire departments in those towns have been willing to spare several workers, at no charge, for the 15 or 20 minutes it takes to safely move an obese patient into his or her home, he said.
Surbeck said he would be surprised if Springfield's policy is unique, adding that it's unfair for the owner of a for-profit company to criticize a tax-supported fire department.
'Sweet Deal'
"How is that the taxpayers' problem?" asked Surbeck, a paramedic and former ambulance service employee. "He's got a sweet deal going - he's got free labor."
Surbeck said the Springfield department focuses on emergency services and making firefighters and paramedics available for fires and health-related emergencies.
Esmond said Medicare and Medicaid, which often cover patients Mercy Ambulance transports, don't pay him enough to justify sending more vehicles to help the two paramedics in a single ambulance.
"We're sympathetic," Surbeck said. "We all have large friends and family members."
However, he said, "A private business accepts a certain amount of risk."
Esmond said Springfield's department should make an exception for out-of-town transport companies that have a hard time arranging for other assistance.
"It's not like it takes a lot of time or resources," he said.
Esmond said 15 minutes of several firefighters' time is all that would have been required.
But Surbeck said transferring a 700-pound patient probably would have required six of his firefighters to work with Esmond's two paramedics for an hour.
Local Firm Responds
After several attempts, Esmond was able to make arrangements with a Springfield-based ambulance company that was planning to meet Esmond's two paramedics Friday night and help move the patient.
Esmond said he hoped the Springfield company would help at no charge. Otherwise, he said the patient, who is covered by Medicaid and Medicare, might be stuck with a bill not covered by either program.
The 42-year-old patient didn't want her name published, according to her brother, Andy Johnson of Springfield. Johnson said his sister is moving into his mobile home after a three-week stay at Kindred Hospital-Sycamore.
She has chronic health problems and was recovering from an infection, he said.
Johnson's sister previously lived with another sister in Sherman, he said. After previous hospitalizations, Sherman firefighters always helped transport workers lift her into the house, Johnson said.
But he said he understood the reasons behind the Springfield Fire Department's policy.
Copyright 2010 The State Journal- Register
All Rights Reserved
September 4, 2010
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gregory Borg on
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The ambulance company is being PAID to move the patient. They need to bring a sufficient number of employees to do the work. Not the city's problem. We have done the same thing here and AMR got more of their people to do their work.
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Permalink Reply by Holton Franklin Brown on
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Why didn't the on site crew get another crew from the same company to help lift the morbidly obese patient? Also,didn't the crew notice the whale-like appearance of the load?
and, as many have noted here, would the company have compensated the department if a member or mbrs were injured/and finally .. would they have charged the patient for the extra city provided personnel?x
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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There are a whole host of issues occurring in this situation and have been stated by several here. My 2 cents worth includes:
There should have been better coordination between social services, the ambulance company, and the "hospital" or care/rehab facility to ensure the recognized problems with access, transportation and safety could be addressed. Until Comrade Obama's socialist healthcare plan gets fully operational, one cannot at present force some one to go into a "home" rather than go back to their residence. Of course that is subject to change. Better scheduling could have allowed for additional manpower to have been available.
Customer service only goes as far as; what the business, company, department or organization is willing to provide. My department will not go get a cat out of a tree. It is an unnecessary use of tax payer dollars, not only tying up an apparatus and crew, it also places the crew in jeopardy of being injured when that cat goes all buzzsaw on their ass.
So I cannot necessarily condemn that departments policy or reasoning for it. But I am puzzled though, as to how a back injury from this type of call will differ from one when they have to respond to pick up that patient when they call 911. Does WC pay better for one and not the other?
However, unless this is becoming a reoccurring theme between a private service and the FD, my department would go out to assist a citizen of our area, not necessarily the private service.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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You send your men to assist the non-emergency transfer patient, the ambulance crew is getting decent to good guaranteed money to move the subject.... it is in fact free labor right? Nobody can argue that....
Now on the other hand, we do assist the subject regardless of the municipal or private service. Why, the owner of the property pays our salary. Granted the tenant or renter doesn't directly but that is in fact the money going from one hand to the other that pays our salaries via property taxes.
Average back injury in our region is about $60,000 dollars per incident. Which in retrospect has fire chiefs scratching their heads on how do we reduce or risk and maintain positive customer service.
I was involved in one recently, but it was a 911 call, the patient was slightly larger than this subject, we used 12 personnel (3 companies) to assure nobody got hurt, and that included every possible toy on the EMS market except a bariatric ambulance.
Bariatric transfer trucks are nice, two man crew can transfer a subject but they only get you to the residence door...
The real question here is are you really being paid to bring them somewhere they can't ambulate on their own?
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Permalink Reply by ROOKIELZ on
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I don't see how a 700lb person should be discharged back into their personal home without that home having the supports and renovations to support that. By which, I mean that if they can't get in and out of their home by walking, driving their w/c up a ramp...then there needs to be some kind of specialized equipment to enable this person to go home.
I don't believe it is up to fire/ems to deliver this person back home and be expected to heave them back into their house. Now if it were an emergency call and that same 700 lb person needed out and fast...THAT is a different story.
It is madness to think that all you have to do in this situation is call a bunch of personnel in to each grab a handful and heave.
At 700 lbs, this person will have a few issues and their home should reflect their needs appropriately. If that is not feasible, well....they need to live in a place that has the supports they need.
This is a smart FD. Ultimately they are protecting their people and hopefully this person will end up living in an environment more suited to her needs and abilities.
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But you see Ralph, that's my point.
It would be the same as an injury occurring while performing a hose drill vs pulling hose at a fire. A claim is a claim.
That 700# patient won't get any lighter if it's an emergency. Someone gets injured on the job, emergency or non-emergency duty won't make a difference. The WC rates and claims will be the same.
As I said, I can understand why the FD would institute their policy, but the WC argument is just kinda weak.
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Permalink Reply by Al Williams on
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Sorry I caught your reply late. But I would assume after the lifting is done, it now becomes the job of the higher ups to meet with the owner or managers of the private company and discuss how this sort of situation should be handled in the future. I'm all for the Chief using the meeting to tell the private company don't call us anymore and if it happens again a complaint will be filed with what ever agency licenses the private company. I think that should work once they are put on notice.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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This was an out-of-town, for-profit ambulance company, not a local company.
The onus of both the lifting and any meeting about said lifting is on the ambulance company, not the local fire department.
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