Here is a link the Washington Post article:
https://wapo.st/3JPpD2Z
It may not completely open if you don’t have a subscription.
I was wondering if anyone had this happen with their Loved One and if the fee was passed on to the resident. Facility understaffing was one reason given for overusing EMS.
Sounds like a question to ask when interviewing facilities. When my husband was in rehab, they wouldn’t use bed or chair alarms so I ended up staying most of the time.
Understaffing is an issue. When my mom was in rehab I saw staff members pulling double shifts more than once.
It’s sad for the patients and the staff. Patients need care and the staff is overworked and generally underpaid.
Just to give an example of ridiculously low wages. Minimum wage in our state (Louisiana) is $7.25 an hour!
Thanks for bringing this article to our attention. I hope your husband is doing better since rehab.
Mom had Parkinson’s disease so she took her share of tumbles. Falling for the elderly is frightening for them and for family members.
Rehab did help my mother. The exercises were geared for balance and strength. She worked hard in occupational and physical therapy.
She avoided being in a wheelchair. She did use a walker. She died at age 95 in a hospice care home. She lived with us for many years.
The growth has infuriated first responders who say these kinds of calls — which involve someone who has fallen and is not injured but can’t get up — unfairly burden taxpayers and occupy firefighters with nonemergencies that should be handled by staff at facilities that charge residents as much as $7,000 a month
A growing number of cities and towns — from Rocklin, Calif., to Naples, Fla., to Lincoln, Neb. — have started pushing back with special fees of $100 to $800 for senior lift-assist calls. Most of the fees are targeted at what fire officials call “the frequent fliers” — assisted-living and senior-care facilities.