City provides update on Seattle Fire’s post-overdose response team pilot

9/19/202337:20

Mayor Bruce Harrell joins Councilmember Lisa Herbold, Fire Chief Harold Scoggins, Mobile Integrated Health program manager Jon Ehrenfeld, and Emergency and Addiction Medicine Physician Dr. Callan Fockele to share an update on Health 99’s progress.

In July 2023, the Seattle Fire Department launched a pilot program for dispatching an additional unit to overdose responses to provide follow-up outreach services to individuals experiencing an overdose. The post overdose response team is part of the fire department’s Mobile Integrated Health program and responds out of the Health 99 vehicle. Staffed with a firefighter/EMT and a Human Services Department case worker, the team typically operates Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The pilot program focuses on Pioneer Square, the Chinatown-International District, Belltown, the downtown business district and Capitol Hill, but the team has discretion to respond elsewhere in the city. Frontline Seattle firefighter/EMTs or paramedics are dispatched initially to overdoses to provide emergency medical care, and Health 99 is added to these responses as available. The role of the Health 99 team begins once the patient is awake and stable.

Speakers and attendees include:

Mayor Bruce Harrell, City of Seattle

Councilmember Lisa Herbold, Seattle City Council

Fire Chief Harold Scoggins, Seattle Fire Department

Jon Ehrenfeld, Mobile Integrated Health program manager

Dr. Callan Fockele, Emergency and Addiction Medicine Physician

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