By Ben Singson
Jacksonville Journal-Courier
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. 鈥� Most people picture emergency service workers responding to high-intensity, high-pressure situations that demand immediate attention.
The reality frequently is much more mundane. Oftentimes, they are helping lift someone who has fallen and can鈥檛 get up on their own.
Lift assists are one of the most common calls emergency service agencies receive. They are so common that some communities, such as Decatur, have begun charging a fee for lift assists.
But just because such calls are common doesn鈥檛 mean they aren鈥檛 important, emergency services workers say.
Jason Sheumaker, operations manager for LifeStar Ambulance Service鈥檚 Jacksonville division, estimated the ambulance company receives an average of at least 10 lift-assist calls each week. He said most lift-assist calls to which LifeStar responds are 鈥渘o-contact medical alarms.鈥�
In his 11 years with LifeStar, Sheumaker said, lift-assist calls have become more frequent. He attributes it to the region鈥檚 aging population, understaffing at assisted living facilities and some larger patients needing extra help getting up off the ground.
Just more than 21% of Morgan County鈥檚 population is over the age of 65, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
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Lift assists could occasionally divert an unnecessary amount of resources to a situation that does not need it, because dispatchers sometimes have to work with incomplete information about an emergency, Sheumaker said. There also have been times when a more pressing emergency developed while crews were handling a lift assist, he said.
鈥淭here is some delay,鈥� Sheumaker said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a large amount of time, but still, there鈥檚 a little bit of delay.鈥�
Regardless of the circumstance, those calls need to be answered, Jacksonville/Morgan County Office of Emergency Management Director Phil McCarty said. If someone who falls were left on the ground for hours, they could develop more severe injuries than if they were helped up pretty quickly, he said.
鈥淔rom our standpoint, yeah, it鈥檚 not the highest-acuity call that we deal with,鈥� McCarty said, 鈥渂ut every call for service needs somebody to address it, some way, somehow.鈥�
Managing resources as emergency situations develop each day is a balancing act, McCarty said, but it is 鈥渧ery dangerous鈥� for emergency workers to put off taking care of lift assists.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got more calls than we have human resources to go on, it feels like, every day,鈥� McCarty said. 鈥淲hether it鈥檚 a lift assist or whatever, we have to meet the people鈥檚 needs in the community and make sure we send the right people or what we have and just do the best we can, every day.鈥�
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