Tag Archives: staffing

Wyoming ride-along reveals under-staffed, high-stressed, dedicated workers

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, City of Wyoming, Crime Prevention, , , ,

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
WKTV Managing Editor
joanne@wktv.org

  • Firefighters Sam and Mike Jones check the vehicle over. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)
  • Lt. Jesse May, center, directs the clean-up at the intersection of 36th and Clyde Park. With him are firefighters Mike Jones (left) and Sam Jones (right). (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)
  • From the left, Firefighters Cullen Dodge and Mike Jones help with clean-up at the intersection of 36th and Clyde Park. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)
  • The Wyoming Fire Department uses its vehicles to block traffic so the team can clean-up the intersection. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)
  • Firefighter Sam Jones makes sure the engine is not on fire before loading the car on to the tow truck. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)
  • The Wyoming Fire Department crew help to load one of the vehicles on to the tow truck. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)
  • Firefighter Cullen Dodge (center) pours a kitty litter-like material on to the street to absorb the oil and gas from the damaged vehicles. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)
  • Part of the duties of the Wyoming Fire Department is to clean-up after an accident. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)
  • Lt. Jesse May keeps an eye on traffic as his crew works on cleaning up the intersection of 36th and Clyde Park. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

NOTE: This is a two-part series on a ride-along with the Wyoming Fire Department. The first part is a glimpse of the daily activities of one of the department’s teams based out of the Central Station, located at 1250 36th St. SW.

“Did you see Steve almost get hit three times?” said Wyoming firefighter Mike Jones as he hops back into the department’s ladder truck.

It was not hard to miss the first incident. Equipment operator Steve Boetsma stood with a blower in hand clearing the debris from the intersection of Clyde Park and 36th Street while the driver of a large black SUV decided to go through the accident versus following the traffic cones to go around it.

Jones said the driver made a crude gesture with Lt. Jesse May noting, “Well, we are station 1.”

“People don’t like us,” Jones said. “They don’t like the police more, but they especially don’t like us when we are blocking an intersection.”

It is 11:15 a.m. on March 22 and this is the fourth run, the second to the same location, the Wyoming Fire Department’s red team has made since the start of its shift at 7 a.m. Within this 24-hour shift, which ended at 7 a.m. March 23, the Wyoming Fire Department would answer 21 calls in total.

The Start of the Day

Equipment operator Steve Boetsma puts the ladder truck through its paces in a check of the equipment. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

The start of the shift was busy with the five-member team of May, Boetsma, Jones, Sam Jones (Jones’ brother), and Cullen Dodge responding first to a medical call, followed by the team’s first visit to the intersection of 36th Street and Clyde Park Avenue, which also was a car accident.

Rolling in after 9 a.m., the team is able to focus on its daily routine of pre-checks, maintenance and starting breakfast.

 

Boetsma takes the ladder truck outside for a routine check, something that is done at the beginning of each shift.

“It is actually the only working ladder truck in the department’s fleet,” May said during a tour of the station. Smaller engines that pump water are both located at the Burton Street and Gezon stations, but are not at the capacity of the ladder truck. If a May 2 millage proposal passes, the department would be able to purchase a second aerial truck that would include a bucket. The second aerial truck would not only provide more water pump capabilities, but the department would be able to switch between vehicles, reducing wear and tear.

Mutual Aid

Lt. Jesse May shows the equipment on one of the medical response vehicles. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

An alarm signals. It’s for Grandville, near the Wyoming/Grandville border.

Even though close, “We can’t answer that call,” May said. You can tell it bothers him not to respond. “If we go, then there is no one to cover the city.”

There are mutual aid agreements between many of the West Michigan communities. In 2020, the City of Wyoming had to rely on assistance from neighboring communities 140 times because the department’s staff was on other calls. Most recently, during the March 18 snowstorm, the Grandville Fire Department responded to a call in Wyoming on Chicago Drive. While on the call, Grandville’s fire engine and a tow truck were struck by oncoming vehicles.

In a Kentwood Fire Department’s 2022 Fire Report, under the mutual aid section, Kentwood responded to mutual aid calls in Wyoming 50 times, while Wyoming responded to mutual aid calls in Kentwood twice. Of the 50 calls Kentwood responded to in Wyoming, 23 were for EMS.

The Increase in Medical Calls

Firefighter Mike Jones prepares a medical call. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

The alarm goes off. It’s 10 a.m.

“They made breakfast,” Jones said as he climbed into the truck.”There is enough for everyone. We try to eat together as a family at every meal; breakfast, lunch and dinner. It doesn’t always work out that way.”

For Wyoming, medical emergencies, such as heart attacks and overdoses have doubled in the past five years from 633 to 1,310. Nursing homes can sometimes have multiple calls in a day, May said. This call is to a doctor’s office.

The average response time for the Wyoming fire department is 5.16 minutes, which falls behind the national recommended average of four minutes. The team makes it to the scene within five minutes. To the team’s surprise, an ambulance service has gotten to the scene before them. May and Jones hop out of the truck to assist. For the three-man team to go out, assist and come back to the station, it takes about 30 minutes.

“Many times we are first on the scene,” May said. “Because we don’t transport, we can take vitals and evaluate, but we have to wait for an ambulance, which depending on the calls that day, could be 30 to 40 minutes.”

No. 1 Priority: Staff

As soon as they get back, Jones is corralling everyone for breakfast. It is about 10:30 a.m. when the group sits down at a large wooden table with the Wyoming Fire Department logo embedded.

 

As they eat, the group openly discusses the need for more staff. Boetsma noted that for a structural fire, the minimum staffing requirement is 14. A fully staffed day, with no one on vacation or sick, the Wyoming Fire Department has 11, but usually staffing levels are at nine. May noted that with nine on a shift, it allows for the department to staff three of its four stations. The only unmanned station is Division Avenue, which is the busiest area for calls, May said.

If there is eight or less on staff, then only Gezon and the Central Station are staffed. The city is divided into two with Central Station taking everything north of 44th Street and Gezon everything south of 44th Street.

Helping to ‘Soften the Load’

Having more staff is on top of the department’s wish list. A May 2 millage proposal would maintain that current staffing of 36 and add three more firefighting positions.

 

Chart from the City of Wyoming

Even with the additional staffing, the Wyoming Fire Department would still be at the bottom of area departments with 39 firefighters covering a population of around 77,000, which is one firefighter serving 2,000 residents. In the City of Grand Rapids, there are 195 firefighters covering a population of about 201,000, which is about one firefighter serving around 1,000 residents.

The additional staff would “soften” the load, May said, adding it would allow firefighters time for other tasks such as testing to make sure its self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) are in working order. The department does this in-house to help keep costs down and for faster turnaround time, he said. It also would allow staff to work on certifications and other maintenance needs that are currently low priority.

Clean up on 36th and Clyde Park

Breakfast is over and the team splits up to take care of various tasks.

Equipment operator Steve Boetsma cleans the intersection of Clyde Park and 36th Street. Firefighter Cullen Dodge walks behind him. This was just before a black SUV almost hit Boetsma. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

“I think people believe we sleep all day or just sit around,” Jones said. “We don’t. We have equipment checks and stuff around the station that needs to be done.”

It’s 11 a.m. and the alarm goes off for the second accident at 36th and Clyde Park. This time, all five members head out, three on the ladder truck and two in a medical response vehicle.

No one is injured. The team puts out an engine fire and starts the process of clean up which includes a kitty litter-like compound on the oil and gas, sweeping up the debris, and assisting the tow truck drivers in removing the vehicles. To protect the scene, the firefighters, police officers, and others, the large ladder truck is used to block a portion of the intersection. The department has a vehicle to block traffic, but not enough staff to drive it to the scene.

“Since there were no injuries, if there had been a medical call, I could have sent two of the guys there,” May said. “I probably would not have though because of the need for traffic control.”

It only took 40 minutes for the clean-up and even with the engine blocking the intersection, there were several close calls, the three with Boetsma and a couple others, with vehicles trying to get around including one person using the wrong lane of traffic to try and make a left, which May had to stand in front of the car to get the driver to turnaround.

It’s back in the truck, but before heading back to the station, the team has one more stop they would like to make.

Next: Part 2, A visit to the Division Avenue station.

A Wyoming wedding vendor, like others in the industry, struggle to keep up with demand

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, City of Kentwood, City of Wyoming, Food, Hard News, Local Business, Local Food, Recreation, Restaurants, , , , ,

By Lindsay M. McCoy
Capital News Service

LANSING – “We’ve been in business for 37 years, and this is definitely the craziest season we have ever seen,” said Kevin Humphrey.

While there have been more requests to book Adeline Leigh’s services than in an average year, the company had to reduce the number of weddings booked this year to deal with worker shortages. (Supplied)

Humphrey is the office manager for Adeline Leigh Catering, a Wyoming business located at 1132 Chicago Dr. SW, that prepares food for hundreds of weddings each year.

Across the state, vendors like florists and caterers are preparing for a frantic 2022 season as the number of weddings is up 15% nationally from normal, according to Wedding Report data.

While there have been more requests to book Adeline Leigh’s services than in an average year, the company had to reduce the number of weddings booked this year to deal with worker shortages.

“We actually cut back to mediate labor issues,” said Humphrey.

Humphrey said the business is also ensuring employees’ time-off requests are honored to keep workers on board.

Adeline Leigh has booked approximately 300 weddings for the upcoming months, about 100 fewer than in 2019.

“There was a point where we were turning down 15 events a day, and not everyone was so understanding,” Humphrey said.

Kalin Sheick, the owner of Sweetwater Floral in Petoskey, said she expects a busier-than-normal season in the months ahead.

Sweetwater will provide floral arrangements for about 100 weddings this year across the state, which is an “immense jump” compared with previous years, said Sheick.

“We will usually average around 65 or 70 a year,” she said. “We only stopped at 100 because of staffing. We could have booked way more than that.”

Sheick said the store has hired additional staff to help tackle the increase, and it is training its employees to focus on taking care of themselves to prepare for the looming, long busy season.

“We know that we need extra help and need to support them as best as possible,” Sheick said.

Other problems vendors are preparing for are supply chain delays and a shortage of products.

“We’re feeling the impact of delay, just like every other industry,” she said. “Stuff that used to be easy to get – vases, hard goods and supplies – there’s a delay and you need to be patient.”

 

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, many large flower farms shut down, causing a smaller supply of flowers, said Sheick.

When it comes to food, Adeline Leigh Catering has had to remove only a couple of items from its menu due to supply issues. (Supplied)

“It really squeezes the amount of product you’re able to get. But at the end of the day, there’s a flower shortage because there’s more weddings happening than ever before,” she said.

When it comes to food, Humphrey said it was lucky that his catering business had to remove only a couple of items from its menu.

The time and effort put into ordering supplies has greatly increased as well. What used to be an hour-long project for Humphrey now can take up to an entire work day, he said.

“We order from many suppliers, and it used to be ‘they’ve got the best price, we’ll go there.’ Now you have to find whoever has it,” Humphrey said.

Another change vendors are seeing is a growing number of events booked outside of the prime wedding season of May through October.

Shannon O’Berski, the director of external relations at Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester, says the event venue is handling more weddings on less typically booked days.

“We have seen an increase in interest in off-season events throughout the fall and winter,”O’Berski said. “And more couples are choosing to host Friday and Sunday weddings.”

Meadow Brook Hall is often booked for the entire season.

“We are certainly receiving many inquiries!,” O’Berski said, and reservations are already filling up for 2023.

 

Though the months ahead will be busy and stressful for wedding vendors, Sheick said her team at Sweetwater Floral is excited about the upcoming season.

“It’s just a really fun job and a good thing to be a part of.”

Capital News Service is provided by the Spartan News Room located at Michigan State University. CNS reporters cover state government for member newspapers and digital media outlets across the state of Michigan.

May 3 proposal could double fire department staffing, reduce response times

3-bottom, City of Wyoming, Crime Prevention, Hard News, Our Cities, WKTV Projects, , , ,

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Currently there are 27 Wyoming firefighters. The department is down by 8 employees from 2000. (WKTV)

In the early morning hours of Jan. 25, the Wyoming Fire Department was called to a house fire on Canal Ave and shortly after, the department received a second call of a fire at the 28th Street Taco Bell.

“Thankfully another shift was on,” said Wyoming Chief Kim Koster. “The Taco Bell fire occurred at 6:30 a.m. Our next shift came on at 7 a.m., so we did have another shift of firefighters who could respond, and they were assisted by other departments.

“But what if we didn’t have that other shift coming on at that time?”

More than likely, a department from a neighboring city, such as Grandville, Grand Rapids, or Kentwood, would have been called. In fact, the City of Wyoming has had to call on those three cities 165 times in 2021 while in the same year providing return assistance 23 times.

The tide needs to turn, Koster said, adding “We need to provide mutual aid in the same manner that we receive it.”

The City of Wyoming is hoping to double its firefighting staffing from 27 to 54 and added 13 police officers and a crime analyst through two proposals on the May 3 ballot. The first proposal would be an income tax of up to 1 percent for city residents and up to .5 percent for non-residents such as commuters who work in the city. In the second proposal, the city is seeking to reduce its property tax by about 58 percent, from around 12 mills to 5. Both proposals must pass to take effect.

The passage would generate about $6 million for the city, of which $5.4 million would be dedicated to the Wyoming Department of Public Safety, which houses the city’s police and fire.

 

How would the city gain revenue if the property tax would go down? According to City Manager Curtis Holt at the March 24 income tax public information meeting, according to the U.S. Census there are about 34,000 non-Wyoming residents who work in the City of Wyoming who currently contribute zero toward the city roads or services. Through the first proposal, those residents would contribute up to a .5 percent of their income. City staff has estimated the total revenue raised from the income tax would be about $6 million annually with $3.3 million dedicated to the fire department, $2.1 million to the police department, and $600,000 to the parks.

With the additional $3.3 million, the City of Wyoming would be able to hire an additional 27 firefighters. This would add about 9 firefighters per shift and the city would be able to fully staff all four of its fire stations. Currently only two of the stations, Gezon and 36th Street, are fully staffed; however emergency calls are evenly distributed throughout the city, Koster said.

The city received about 7,155 calls in 2021, which is about 265 calls for service per firefighter. With the additional firefighters, calls for service per firefighter would decrease to around 133. In neighboring Kentwood, calls for service per firefighter is about 121. Kentwood has 42 firefighters serving a population of 51,898. The City of Grand Rapids has 195 firefighters serving a population of 201,013 with calls for service per firefighter around 123. Holt pointed out that this shows that Wyoming’s firefighters are answering a lot of calls.

The Wyoming Fire Department answered 7,155 calls in 2021, averaging 265 calls for service per firefighter. (WKTV)

The additional 27 firefighters would allow the city to fully staff all four of its stations, Koster said, adding that in return this would mean faster response times.

“Right now, we have to send our resources to where the calls are,” Koster said during the March 24 informational meeting. “Sometimes we have to send them all away across the city and then a call comes out from where they just came from. So then again, we have to send a unit from this side of the city all the way back. So our response times are higher that way.”

There would be more firefighters on each shift, again increasing response times along with providing enough officers to answer more than one call at a time. More officers not only increases the safety of residents but of the firefighters as well.

“Right now, we don’t have enough firefighters in the City of Wyoming to enter a burning building,” Koster said, adding that the rule is you have to have two out for the two going in a burning structure so the two out can rescue the two in if something happens.

Lastly, the increased staffing would reduce Wyoming’s dependence on mutual aid.

“It won’t eliminate it,” Koster said, adding that there will be times when another city’s department has to be called.

“It would increase the number of firefighters on each shift so when we have those structure fires we can handle them alone or at least leave some of those units available for some of those medical calls,” she said.

To learn more about the two May 3 proposals, visit wyomingmi.gov/FundingFortheFuture. The next informational meeting on the two proposals is April 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the KDL Wyoming Branch, 3350 Michael Ave. SW. 

Nursing shortage renews push for patient load limits

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Health, Our Cities, Senior Living,

By Nicholas Simon
Capital News Service

LANSING — A staffing crisis at Michigan hospitals has renewed efforts to protect nurses from unmanageable patient loads and too many hours of consecutive work.

The Safe Patient Care Act, first introduced in 2017, has picked up additional cosponsors from both parties in the House and Senate. It seeks to regulate how many patients a nurse can care for and the number of consecutive hours that they can work.

It would also publicize hospital nurse-to-patient ratios.

  

Nurses are “forced to make painful choices every day,” Jamie Brown, the president of the Michigan Nurses Association, said in a statement.

“The hospital industry has been purposely getting by with inadequate (registered nurse) staffing levels for years,” said Brown, who leads the state’s largest nurses union. 

“Nurses have long warned that our communities would suffer the kind of dangerous crisis that nurses and patients are facing now. The pandemic has only worsened and exposed hospitals’ emphasis on money above all else,” Brown said.

The union says that those choices are a result of hospitals trying to protect their bottom line. But Brian Peters, the chief executive officer of the Michigan Hospital Association, argues that government mandates for every hospital would be ineffective and make it harder for hospitals to operate.

“The one-size-fits-all approach inherent in legislatively mandated decisions impacting clinical care typically fails to recognize the complexity of patient care and the diversity of healthcare environments,” Peters said in a statement.

Unlike truck drivers, air-traffic controllers, pilots and rail operators, nurses have no federal limit on how many consecutive hours they can be forced to work, according to the Michigan Nurses Association.

 

Nurses can be fired and have their licenses stripped for refusing forced overtime even if they don’t feel fit to work because hospitals can claim that they are abandoning their patients.

Medical errors are the leading cause of preventable death, beating out smoking and obesity, according to the Journal of Patient Safety.

 

Nationally, the Nurses Association estimates that 440,000 people in the United States die every year due to infections and delayed or incorrect medications, problems that proper nursing care could prevent.  Studies over the past two decades have linked  patient mortality and staffing ratios, according to the union.

In Michigan, even before the pandemic, one in five nurses was aware of when understaffing led to a patient’s death, and half of registered nurses said they are assigned unsafe patient loads at least half the time they are working, according to the union.

Hospitals say that staffing is a collaborative process and fixed ratios “don’t allow for flexibility and innovation,” said John Karasinski, the communications director for the Michigan Hospital Association.

 

“Every hospital in Michigan has a process in place to ensure that each of their clinical units is appropriately staffed,” Karasinski said. “These processes are based on individual patient needs and the training, experience and capabilities of the entire clinical care team, including nurses.”

However, half of Michigan nurses say hospitals rarely or never adjust their schedules, even when they report unsafe workloads, according to a survey paid for by the Nurses Association. The majority (80%) of Michigan nurses are not protected by a union and face harsh repercussions for speaking out against hospital practices. The Nurses Association reports that multiple nurses have been fired over the last two years for trying to raise the alarm over this issue, worsening staffing shortages that are already at crisis levels.

    

Staffing shortages are affecting hospitals across the state. The Michigan Hospital Association says 80% of nursing groups nationally have reported an increase in turnover due to the pandemic and that there are nearly 2 million openings for nurses across the country.

“Hospitals want to hire more nurses, and they want to retain the nurses they currently employ, but the current national demand for nurses far exceeds the available supply,” Karasinski said.

The Michigan Nurses Association said that the Safe Patient Care Act will bring nurses back to work. It points to data from the federal Department of Health and Human Services that indicates Michigan was on track to have a more than 5,000 nurse surplus by 2030 as proof that there are plenty of nurses, but that hospitals are causing them to leave their jobs.

 

Brown, who also works as a critical care nurse at Ascension Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo, said nurses are staying away from hospitals for safety concerns.

“Evidence shows there are enough qualified nurses to fill needed positions,” Brown said. “However, unless there is a serious commitment to safe staffing, fewer and fewer nurses will continue to choose to work in these dangerous settings.”

The Safe Patient Care Act was introduced in March and is a continuation of previous failed efforts. But supporters say they hope the pandemic has refocused attention to safer hospital care.

The legislation dealing with limits on forced overtime has 45 sponsors in the 110-member House. That’s 34 more cosponsors than it did the last time it was introduced in 2017.

 

The package of legislation was sent to a committee in March and there are currently no meetings scheduled to take up the issue.

Brown said the problem cannot be put off any longer, and she hopes to see movement on the issue before the end of the term.

“We are seeing this downward spiral happen in real time,” Brown said. “Michigan legislators need to address the problem. We don’t need Band-Aids, we need substantive solutions.”

ABOUT NICHOLAS SIMON

Nicholas Simon is a multimedia reporter from South Haven, Michigan. His areas of interest include international relations, commercial spaceflight, ecology, and globalization. He has covered events for both print and broadcast outlets ranging from protests to presidential debates and currently covers the Grand Ledge community for the Spartan Newsroom.