In the shadow of the largest election landslide in Thurston County’s history we want to take a moment and thank everyone who worked so hard to help us enhance the service we provide to the community. For us, it was an important vote of confidence to the street fire fighter and medical responder. We heard loud and clear that the community cares and emergency services matters. Thank you for everyone who voted and for closing a chapter in history that clearly was a long time coming.
We had a few thoughts regarding the past three years that we thought would now be relevant especially in hind sight. First, the inability of government entities to get along is a huge waste of the taxpayer’s money. The most important thing governments can do in economic times like these is to work together, put personal differences aside, and work to save money and produce a value to the customer/tax payer. What isn’t helpful is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on staff time, consultants and third party reports, attorney fees, and court costs, etc. etc. It didn’t make sense then and it really hurts now realizing how much money was squandered. Was it worth it? No.
We’ve also wondered where the drive to create a new city fire department came from. It never did make any sense on paper to take a government entity and essentially duplicate it and then somehow claim that the cost/benefit value to the citizens somehow made sense. Or even to go into neighborhoods and tell people that their response times and service would be better but they would be doing it with less resources and longer response distances. Did we ever hear how much it would have cost to start up a new fire department? At times, the answer seemed so farfetched and unrealistic that perhaps it was all a joke gone wrong where political figures were so personally angry and attached to a political position that they were unwilling to make amends or change course. Would the local political elite have driven this position over the proverbial cliff had the voters not stepped in?
And what about a few of those key players or “political elite”? We’ve wondered quite a bit about a few select folks and tried to guess why they hold the views that they do. When they went down this path of creating a new fire department, they helped support the project by essentially shutting out external input and communication especially from the firefighters. We asked “why” then when this all started and still ask “why” today?
What about Jeff Powell? Jeff is a prominent local businessman and president of the local chamber of commerce. The fire fighters have already stated in earlier blogs that we would bend over backwards for business if given the chance and we want to be a proponent for business initiatives. We are keenly aware that the success of our local small business sector makes all the difference for the entire community and we believe that we agree with many of the goals of the local chamber. But for some reason, Mr. Powell has been a frequent opponent to the fire district even before the city district fight in Lacey. Why? We frequently find that our critics, who stand from a distance and never step into a fire station or talk to those actually doing the job, are at a significant disadvantage when understanding the issues. So this is an invitation to change that and for other critics to see for yourself what’s accurate and what’s not when it comes to local fire and EMS service.
As a final thought, everyone needs to work to prevent this from happening again. The amount of misinformation that was disseminated and then held as truth during the height of the district/city mess was very troubling. It’s been said that “truth is the first casualty of war”, and in this fight this statement was absolutely the case. From 17% pay raises, to only 5 calls a day, or the “per capita” taxation figures that a former politician spun to make his case, it was all “bull spit” to support a political mirage. Prevention through accurate information, political action through good and honest politics in our elected officials, and through reasonable and citizen focused community leaders is what must occur.
So is it over? The Olympian had an editorial a few weeks ago calling for political tranquility and to move on and it’s been something we’ve been thinking about. One of our mistakes in the past is that we trusted certain administrators and politicians to make the right decisions. One of our lessons learned is that no citizen should take a “hands off” approach especially in our local political system. And that should go for any organization, community group, and business entity; people need to be involved and care about what your local politicians are doing. We’ve seen the damage that self serving politicians and empire builders can do to a community. It was our wakeup call that the safety of the community and those that serve the people should not rest to chance and the current political whim.
With that said, you will continue to see fire fighters showing up at meetings, supporting schools and other community service groups, and caring about who gets elected or holds office. We encourage everyone who is also concerned and caring about what goes on in your community to make the same efforts and show up at meetings, support good candidates, and ask hard questions of your leaders.
Thank you for supporting the people serving you.
For decades, fire departments have fought over staffing funding with budget masters, mayors, and city councils trying to get the revenue that put fire fighters on the street. The problem, simply put, how can you prove that the absence or presence of a fire fighter may have made a difference on an emergency call? Its true that fire departments have in the past had a hard time justifying their existence because the lack of statistics or the fight over their interpretation. Other reasons were that budget managers found that hiring fire fighters or police officers was not as “glitzy” or public relations “fertile” as perhaps other spending choices.
One of the battle grounds for fire fighter staffing has been crew size. Many departments, both volunteer and paid, respond with only one or two fire fighters on a fire engine because that’s what they have funding for. Other departments because of budget cuts have reduced staffing from four or three people on an engine or even shut stations or equipment down because they can’t afford to. In the case of Lacey Fire District, we have a fire station that used to have three people assigned to it, and its now down to two. And at the main station, we are frequently shutting down the ladder truck or an aid car because we lack staffing to keep it them on the road. To most people, this problem goes un-noticed but for the responders, we can tell you its huge problem!
Last month, the National Institute of Science and Technology released a study that stated that the number of fire fighters on a crew or fire engine has huge implications on the efficiency or effectiveness of the said crew. The study found simply that a fire crew of two people versus three people trying to do the same common fire fighting tasks at a house fire were several minutes slower on average than the bigger crew. And with the same numbers of people trying to do a search and rescue in a home that the crew of three was 25% faster over the shorthanded crew.
Here’s a quote from the federal researchers, “The fire modeling showed clearly that two-person crews cannot complete essential fireground tasks in time to rescue occupants without subjecting either firefighters or occupants to an increasingly hazardous atmosphere.”
If you would like to read the report for yourself please go here.
We hope you consider that next time you see a fire engine with one or two people on it, ask yourself are they really saving money or lives? This study is proving the obvious.
The Mount Rainier Chapter of the American Red Cross recently gave awards for heroic acts by members of the community. This is what they posted on facebook regarding two of the recipients from Lacey Fire District and the picture is from Fitzgeralds Photography in Lacey.
“Red Cross Medical Rescue Heroes
Award Sponsor: Providence St. Peter Hospital
Firefighters Ethan Kruse and Mike Perry of Lacey Fire Department were on duty February 13, 2010 when they were dispatched to an emergency call involving a 10-month-old infant in cardiac arrest. While en route to the scene, the team reviewed their protocols and planned their course of action in an effort to not waste a single precious second during the response.
Upon arrival at the scene, Firefighters Kruse and Perry were told by the family that baby Jesse had a known history of cardiac problems. He had been found unconscious and not breathing.
While it was a stressful situation, both Firefighters Kruse and Perry stayed calm and focused. They took over the scene and the cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from the grandfather who had been the initial responder. Their training and experience allowed them to quickly assess the baby’s condition.
Firefighter Kruse performed chest compressions on the little boy as Firefighter Perry took care of the airway. The smaller features of the baby made it more difficult, but soon they detected a pulse and breathing.
Baby Jesse was immediately transported to Providence St. Peter Hospital until stabililzed and then transferred to Children’s Hospital in Seattle. He is making slow, but significant steps towards his recovery.
Since the incident, Jesse’s family has taken proactive steps and made the commitment get trained in first aid and CPR. They want to be prepared in case of another emergency and help increase their chances for a positive outcome.
Baby Jesse was recently discharged from the hospital just in time to celebrate this first birthday at home with his family and friends. “
Photo Used by permission from Fitgerald's Photography.
At Lacey Fire District, the union has been drug through the mud frequently that we’re anti-volunteer and we’re chasing away volunteers. In truth, most of the career members at Lacey started as volunteers, and even some still are volunteers in other communities. In many departments, the existence of paid fire fighters has been a saving factor for volunteer programs because they gap fill for shortages or help to directly address the ever increasing technical workload and tasks. The largest factor impacting volunteer fire fighters has been the changing economies and lifestyles of those in our community.
In Lacey, it wasn’t even a decade ago where people worked shifts at the Olympia Brewery, worked at a much busier Weyerhaeser and George Pacific Mills, Hardel lumber and Cascade Pole, Kay Packaging, or even Lacey Plywood. It was shift work and people had the time and income to do such things as fire fighting even during the weekdays. Or the farmers and students who lived in very rural areas of South Lacey had all night to respond and leave and return to their jobs at day without upsetting a boss.
We’re not anti-volunteer, we just ask that you consider the world that we’re in and understand that volunteers in the fire service are becoming harder to find as communities change, costs and training requirements are quite substantial and growing, and its not accurate to assume that paid fire fighters are out to eliminate volunteers.
If you don’t believe us, look here: Few volunteers news.
In Snohomish County, fire districts are finding efficiencies in combining their efforts.
Snohomish Fire districts go it together.
In other news, in Cowlitz County, they are looking at forming “taxing districts” in order to offset growth and build. I have never heard of this mentioned locally (or ever heard of this process for districts as being an option for that matter), but its noteworthy for how other areas are dealing with growth especially in sub-urban communities.
Fire District Taxing area.
It’s been an amazing transformation for the fire service in the last decade and for once I am not talking about politics. While politics has an impact on the services that we provide it has become evident when talking with the public on just how important customer service is. Let me explain.
I heard my father talking today after flying back from California about how airlines really have the average customer by the nose (or other body parts) in that you the customer don’t have much choice. My father lamented the airlines have you collectively captive where prices are largely synonymous between carriers, that they all want you to handle your own luggage, and that the process of air travel is a generally thought of uncomfortable from start to finish. As a result, the public is frequently searching for alternatives and loyalty to one brand or provider is fairly low. For the airlines and their employees, employee morale is typically low, employees frequently have poor job security, and most of us customers wouldn’t really care if certain carriers disappeared tomorrow.
I see a similar phenomenon in government where the customer or in this case the public impression of many tax funded agencies is generally fairly low (insert politician ratings here). The impression I get especially going to door to door and meeting our public in support of upcoming fire department annexation elections is that the measure of dissatisfaction in politics and government clearly is real at the local level. But the other strong message I and other fire fighters receive is that the value of government or any service provided by tax dollars is now clearly in competition and evaluated by the voter in terms of worth. Regardless of the economy tax funded entities are becoming increasing scrutinized for their performance and value. So simply put, the tax payer is watching and listening and will answer the question frequently at the polls, “Is the service worth the taxes?” It’s about value and customer service; that’s the way it should be.
Applied to the fire service, it’s become evident that some old models of providing service are clearly obsolete. Political barriers need to come down between organizations so that collective savings on duplicated efforts can be attained. An example of this is that county fire departments generally formed decades ago, should combine duplicated efforts such as maintenance, administration, or even buying. Fire hose, for example, gets a heck of a lot cheaper per foot when 5000’ of hose is purchased by multiple departments simultaneously rather than 6 departments buying hose in 500’ increments 6 separate times.
Also critical to the fire service is the growing public expectation that “no” is frequently not an answer. If you say “no” enough then either the public has a false expectation of what they’re paying (education is key here) or they’re legitimately expecting a service. Lacey Fire District has in the last year added a lot of services including specialized rescue as part of joint county team doing such things as rope rescue, water rescue, and even such things as ice rescue. I suspect that this trend of expanded service is just starting and that the “fire service” is about to have a whole new role, potentially by default, with health-care reform. Time will tell.
As a parting thought, just to illustrate how things are changing, this is a recent photo from a house fire in which a house was fully charged with smoke and fire. The house was checked for human patients but none were found…However a family dog was found and full efforts were made to resuscitate the animal. The point is service matters and it’s clear in most cases that the family pet is viewed as member of the family. Do what it takes, it’s about the customer.
Working to save the family dog at a house fire.
Kent and Covington fire districts are proposing to form a fire authority to maintain service. You can read about their efforts here:
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/cmv/news/86291267.html
Also major fire districts in Snohomish are also looking at consolidation, you can read about them here:
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100310/NEWS01/703109696
We encourage upcoming consolidation and hope you vote yes on April 27th.
Mergers, Annexations, and Fire Authorities, oh my!
As the budget axe swings in just about every community in our region, the fire and EMS service has not been immune to reductions and budget cuts. In nearby and like communities such as University Place, Lakewood, Bremerton, Central Kitsap, South Kitsap, Mukilteo, and more, these local communities have either just recently combined fire service or are seriously pursuing doing just that.
There are a lot of reasons for combing fire service, but perhaps the biggest is just simple efficiency. Every time you have two separate fire departments, you duplicate so many operations in management, maintenance, overhead, suppression, and so on. Does it make any sense to have one fire department cover one side of the street, and because the other side of the street is unincorporated (not in a city or particular fire district) its served by someone else? This is especially concerning if it costs more to maintain two government entities/fire departments instead of just one and possibly reduces service for the customer/tax payer.
I’ve yet to hear or see of a citizen ask which fire or police department responded first to their home when they were in need. Thus this argument should be based on service to the citizen first and the value to their checkbook, and not just about control and politics. With that said, typically mergers, annexations, and RFA (regional fire authorities) just make sense.
See for you self what other cities and agencies are doing: (oh…and when you read what other communities 30 miles to the north pay for fire protection, realize that LFD is about a 1/3 of the cost for the same ISO/service rating).
Lakewood/University Place merger: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/1056148.html
Snohomish County:
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20091104/NEWS01/711049853
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20050913/NEWS01/509130747
Kitsap County:
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/kitsap/poi/news/80440287.html
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/dec/05/bremerton-fire-merger-regains-momentum/
Thurston County:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/realdupont/archives/167911.asp
The following story is taken with permission from the Lacey Sunrise Lions news letter. You can also visit their website here and also see the Lion’s local newsletter here! Thank you and good job to fire fighter’s Kruse and Cox!
LFD Fight More Than Fire With LSL
LFD (Lacey Fire Department) teamed up with LSL (Lacey Sunrise Lions) to tackle more than just a fire when they stepped forward to donate money $400. Two City of Lacey Firemen visited our Lions Club meeting on December 10th. Ryan Cox and Ethan Kruse presented the Lacey Sunrise with a check for $400.00.
This check was to cover the costs of a wheelchair ramp which was constructed for Margaret Nystrom. Margaret was referred to the Lacey Sunrise Lions club as being someone in need of a wheel chair ramp and lacking the funds to pay for the construction out of her pocket. The Lacey Fire Department Guild maintains a fund to help with local community individuals in need of assistance. They recognized the need for a ramp but lacking the experience of the Lacey Sunrise Lions Building Crew, requested our assistance. Two of the firemen showed up on the construction date to help with the work and found the hammers fit very well in their hands. Building Chairman Bob Kelley remarked that with a few more projects under their belt, they could earn carpenter pencils and eventually be allowed to sharpen them for actual use.
The ramp was constructed and Margaret was very pleased and happy to have access to her home without aid of someone to mover her up and down her steps. The prospect of being able to move in and out of her home was a comforting thought and lessens the danger of injury resulting from a fall or slip. Margaret thanked the crew continuously.
This donation from the Lacey Fire Department Guild exceeded the cost of the construction material and the balance was directed to further other needy projects. The Lacey Sunrise Lions sincerely thank the Lacey Firemen for both their generous donation and their work on the project. We look forward to partnering with them in the future and possible membership in the Lacey Sunrise Lions Club by some of the firemen. Those pencils are waiting, gentlemen!
When you dial 911 in Thurston County for a medical issue, you’re going to get a response of at least a local fire department member who is trained in some form of emergency medicine (EMS) to your assistance. But after the initial examination, if you require further care than the field EMS provider can give you then the majority of the time it means a date at the local hospital emergency department. Lately, many a customer or 911 caller has told Lacey EMT’s that they’re hesitant in going to the hospital for a variety of reasons which can include concerns about cost of the ER exam, private ambulance transportation, getting home from the hospital, emergency room wait times, and more. It’s our observation that sometimes 911 is being called because the fire department EMS providers is perceived as the most viable option for care for the individual.
If you read the Olympian, you may have caught where St. Peters is expanding its emergency room again even though it had a massive construction project less than 4 years ago that more than tripled its capacity. What we should note is that the business decision makers believe that emergency medicine is going to be a growth industry and thus have decided to invest millions in advance of a predicted wave of patients. Further, it’s also been in the paper about the difficulty at times local citizens have in finding out of hospital care such as a general practitioner and even specialists.
A few months ago, I asked the general manager of Olympic Ambulance, Mary Gregory, what she made on Medicare patient and she said it’s about $.18 on the dollar. So every dollar that is charged means that 82 cents are frequently not collected. I’ve also talked to a doctor in the community on the same subject and he told me typically can’t accept Medicaid because that he only collected less than 50 cents on every dollar which didn’t even cover overhead and insurance. So that every patient on government healthcare that he saw was a loss to his practice; he said he must limit Medicaid/Medicare patients because they ‘can take over your practice’ with my assumption in the statement is that it would kill his business/practice.
So what does this mean with health care reform for pre-hospital medicine specifically during that time a perspective patient arrives at the emergency room? The final answer is yet to be unveiled as bills are yet to be combined, and the new administrative rules adopted and implemented. But some bets are that the very methods in which people are treated may put new emphasis on how the system functions. That is to say that you may call 911 and you may not go to the hospital. Or you may not want to call 911 seeking other more affordable alternatives that involve not going to the emergency room. For agencies that charge patient transports to the hospital (such as some county fire departments and private ambulances but note Lacey Fire District does not charge for service) the impact of health care reform could be huge on their business and operations!
In the short term, Medicare rules set reimbursement rates at an apparent flat reimbursement rate, but Medicare rates are reported to be likely falling again in Washington State as the budget crisis continues. In the long term, it could mean a lot of things in Lacey and Thurston County as reimbursement methods and values (even for intra-facility or hospital transport: private ambulances bread winner for years) are likely to dramatically shift. What if private ambulance service that currently handles the majority of hospital transport in Lacey decided it had enough of low profit 911 call service and won’t provide hospital transport? What could it mean also for pre-hospital care if the direction is to be treated at home and not necessarily taken to a very expensive emergency room? What happens if during the next pandemic flu epidemic that the local hospitals say no more patients because they are already full?
As our population of baby boomers continues to age and the demand for medical care continues to rise in our community, the answer to these questions will not come in a sweeping government notice when health care reform comes but will likely be a series of reactions to changes that are yet unclear in pre-hospital care.
But as we enter this era of uncertainty and guaranteed change in healthcare, it perhaps emphasizes the value on public emergency services and how that the future will likely bring a lot of potential change in how, technically speaking, Lacey Fire Fighters medically treat its customers. While some readers are expecting this to be a call to arms to remove private ambulance service in Lacey (far from it), it’s actually a realization that private ambulance service may not be a guarantee in the future because its “for profit” and that there is no mandate that a company provide service in the community. Lacey Fire Fighters are committed to serving in any and all capacities regardless of what the future may hold. We also understand that the financial demands on the community and its expectations especially in quality and consumptions of pre-hospital care will likely increase.
We advocate that fire departments in the region and state should be ready for radical changes in pre-hospital care and prepare their respective citizens through education on what these changes will before they are implemented. Further, maybe it’s time we consider that a 911 medical care call is not a guaranteed trip to the hospital and that we should be ready to provide more care in the home because the emergency room in the future might not always be an option. Fire department based paramedic/physicians assistants anyone? And before you laugh and say “no”, understand that some fire departments in our country are doing exactly that.
http://www.jems.com/news_and_articles/articles/bill_a_mixed_blessing_for_ems.html
http://www.jems.com/news_and_articles/articles/the_devil_is_in_the_details.html
http://www.aep.org/policy.asp#Pre-HospitalCarebyLicensedPractitionersOtherThanPhysicians
