Beverly Hills Mayor, Fire Chief Kick Off Nationwide Tour

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Mayor Dr. Julian Gold and other city officials last week kicked off a nationwide tour promoting the city's nurse practitioner program with a visit to the City Leaders Summit in Sacramento.

Gold was joined by Fire Chief Greg Barton, Medical Director Dr. Marc Cohen and EMS Administrator Sean Stokes at the summit. It marks the first of several trips they're taking to promote the city program.

The Beverly Hills Nurse Practitioner Program was created in 2019. It serves as a mobile integrated healthcare solution, responding to low acuity emergency calls. The program attends to those in need of at-home treatment, addresses chronic conditions and reduces the reliance on emergency rooms so that firefighting resources can be freed up, according to the city.

The City Council approved additional funding for the program last week.

“Our Nurse Practitioner Program is the beginning of the future of community-based medicine,” Gold said. “We are leading this pilot program to demonstrate to the country how we can put less stress on our hospitals and effectively give the care that is needed to our residents where they are at home. As we seek programs which support aging in place, it is imperative that we develop solutions like this one.”

City officials are set to speak about the program at the California Contract Cities Association in Indian Wells on May 20 and the Congressional Fire Service Institute in Washington, D.C. on May 23.