On a regular basis, emergency medical service providers and firefighters in Webster County get called to help pick someone up off the floor or the ground.

These kinds of responses are called lift assists. They are often defined as situations in which someone falls from a standing or sitting position, is not hurt, but cannot get up by themselves.

To ensure that a trained emergency medical responder assesses a person in need of a lift assist, the Fort Dodge Fire Department will begin responding to those calls in the northern half of Webster County.

The procedure was announced during Wednesday’s meeting of the Webster County Emergency Medical Service Advisory Council.

“We want to get that ambulance headed in that direction,” Scott Richard, the county’s emergency medical service coordinator said.

The Fire Department now responds to lift assist calls in the city limits. In the southern half of the county, either the Dayton Rescue Squad or Southwest Webster Emergency Medical Service responds. In the northern half of the county, the local volunteer fire department responds.

Richard said those volunteer fire departments may not have a trained emergency medical provider available to assess the person in need of a lift assist. That’s why an ambulance from Fort Dodge will be sent.

If the volunteer fire department has an EMT or emergency medical responder on scene, that person can check the individual and advise the Fort Dodge unit to go back to the station if it isn’t needed, Richard said.

He said this procedure is consistent with what is done in Fort Dodge and the southern half of the county.

On May 11, the City Council instituted fees for repeated lift assist calls. Those fees will apparently not be charged for the out-of-town lift assists.

When the council approved those fees, the elected officials were told that lift assists account for about 5 percent of the Fire Department’s calls.