EVERETT — Pending City Council approval, the Everett Fire Department could issue fines if care facilities use first responders to perform non-emergency lift assists.
The fines would only apply to licensed care facilities, which includes skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities where trained medical staff are present at all times. There are about 15 of those across the city, Everett Fire Chief Dave DeMarco said at a June 25 council meeting. It would not apply to registered adult family homes or individuals calling 911 for help on their own.
Lift assists occur when first responders are called to a scene to pick up a person who has fallen to the ground and needs to be lifted back to a seat or bed. Licensed care facilities are required by law to be able to perform those assists, DeMarco said. The penalty would be applied if the incident commander on site finds that there is not a medical emergency as part of the lift assist request, the ordinance reads.
The ordinance is not intended to be a revenue stream for the fire department, he added, rather an incentive for care facilities to keep enough staff on site to perform non-emergency actions.
“In no case will somebody be left on the floor,” DeMarco said. “If they need us to come and do the lift, we will always come and do the lift. But if they call us often enough, it’s going to become expensive enough that they’re going to decide to hire more staff, and that’s the direction we’d want them to head.”
Fines will be based on the cost required to deliver the service, ranging from about $550 to $800, DeMarco said. Under the proposed ordinance, facilities could appeal the fine if they felt it was imposed in error.
Non-emergent requests for emergency medical services use up resources from an agency that responds to about 75 dispatches every day, according to 2023 data. The fire department responded to around 27,000 incidents that year.
If the ordinance was in effect in 2024, the department would have evaluated about 55 incidents to determine if a penalty would be issued, DeMarco said.
In 2018, the city of Tacoma passed a similar law that went into effect the following year.
The council is expected to vote on the ordinance July 9. If approved, the law wouldn’t take effect until the beginning of 2026 and the fire department would visit all affected care facilities to educate them about the new penalty, DeMarco said.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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