Beverly Hills Fire Department Adds Nurse Practitioner Unit

In an effort to cut down ED overcrowding in its city's hospitals, the Beverly Hills Fire Department has added a Nurse Practitioner Response Unit (NPRU) to its prehospital care team. The one-year program, paid for by the city of Beverly Hills, is an effort to cut down on ED overcrowding.   "If you take a look at any of the local hospitals you'll know their emergency rooms are filled with truly non-critical patients, but nonetheless people who need care," Beverly Hills Mayor Julian Gold told KABC in an interview earlier this week. Nurse practitioners are not new to Los Angeles-area fire department crews. The Los Angeles City Fire Department launched its first NPRU in January 2016, staffed by an LAFD firefighter/paramedic and a nurse practitioner. NP1 was stationed in Watts (in South Central Los Angeles, one of the busiest and toughest EMS jurisdictions in the country. JEMS: Nurse Practitioner Response Unit Launched in Los Angeles Last year, the LAFD expanded the pilot, adding five additional advanced provider response units (APRU) after receiving additional public-private funding from Cedars Sinai, Kaiser Permanente, Providence Health & Services Southern California, and the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation. The new units serve the communities of Arleta, Hollywood, Pico-Robertson/Mid-City, Downtown and Woodland Hills.
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: News News Videos Patient Care Administration and Leadership Top Story Mobile Integrated Healthcare Source Type: news