Just one year after piloting an innovative medical program through the Beverly Hills Fire Department (BHFD), the City is poised to expand its Nurse Practitioner Unit (NPU) to service residents seven days a week. While the program’s reactive (911- based) component is not novel, its proactive approach (patient home visits) to care is very much a new and unique way to provide public health services.
“The spirt of said response is to visit residents before they reach the emergent medical state in which 911 is called,” said BHFD Chief Gregory W. Barton. He noted that multiple government and healthcare entities were currently evaluating the components of Beverly Hills’ program, which via its integration into the Fire Department is having a multifaceted impact on patients’ healthcare. “It is becoming more evident that programs akin to the NPP (Nurse Practitioner Program) will become a standard response for Fire Departments.”
