Two weeks into the rollout of Vashon Island Fire & Rescue’s new Mobile Integrated Heath team, Fire Chief Matt Vinci said the program is off to a great start.
The program, officially launched on Feb. 21, will serve patients with a wide variety of needs, said Vinci, including follow-up visits after surgery, wound care, fall prevention assessment, nutrition and wellness checks, and much more — encouraging recovery in the place where it happens — islanders’ homes.
The program’s staff includes its manager, Lilie Carroon; Ashley Soares, a registered nurse hired by the district who now works two days a week on the program; and a rotating roster of firefighters.
On Wednesdays, one of those firefighters and Nurse Soares now head out to make house calls, in a shiny new red utility SUV purchased last year by VIFR for the program. According to Vinci, the fire district has currently identified 38 referral patients for services — a group that includes some islanders who are still in the hospital and will require follow-up visits after their release.
In the past two weeks, Soares and firefighters have visited eight of those patients, with each home visit scheduled for about 90 minutes. All visits include a home safety check, Vinci said, with firefighters checking smoke detectors, assessing tripping and other risk factors that may hamper recovery.
At VIFR’s February 28 board meeting, Vinci’s report on the program’s launch included a heartwarming story: on a visit to the home of an islander who was recovering from a bone fracture, the firefighter on duty noticed a sinkful of dirty dishes in the kitchen.
Rolling up his sleeves, the first responder started scrubbing all the dishes, pots, and pans in hot, soapy water, and by the time Nurse Soares had finished her assessment of the islander, the sink was empty and the kitchen was clean again.
“As a fire chief, I’m incredibly proud of that,” said Vinci. “That’s compassionate care, from the heart.”
Mobile Integrated Health is a King County program, partially funded by the already-existing EMS levy.
The district has long been eligible to participate in the program, though did not do so under its previous administration. After Matt Vinci’s hire as chief in 2022, VIFR retroactively claimed approximately $164,000 in EMS levy appropriations for the years 2020-2023 — funds used in part to finance the build-out of the Mobile Integrated Health program on Vashon, including the 2023 purchase, for $53,000, of the SUV used in the program.
According to the district’s current budget projections, the total cost for the program, in 2024, will be $83,000, Vinci said.
Of that amount, approximately $48,500 in revenue will come from the EMS levy, with the remaining revenue coming from funding made possible by local voters’ approval, in 2023, of a levy lid-lift measure for the district.
VIFR’s participation in Mobile Integrated Health, said Vinci, will revolutionize how the district addresses low-acuity calls, with a focus on community service and accessibility.
There is no cost to patients served by Mobile Integrated Health, Vinci pointed out, adding that the Fire District board also voted in December to change the way the district bills for hospital transports via ambulance.
As of January 1, the cost of ambulance transport services will be billed to islanders’ insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid — but additional costs not covered by insurance will be written off against funds received through the Fire District levy. Previously, the district had billed islanders to pay any amount not covered by insurance.
The Mobile Integrated Health program, and the district’s decision regarding billing for transport, both represent the district’s commitment to equality for all islanders in accessing emergency services, Vinci said.
“These are progressive moves to support the health of the island,” he said.
