The Los Angeles Fire Department has initiated a 12-month program to staff two Nurse Practitioners at the Metropolitan Fire Communications (MFC) 911 dispatch center. The purpose of this program is to allow low acuity 911 calls to be more thoroughly screened in order to determine which calls can be processed without the need to dispatch an Emergency Management Services (EMS) unit.
The Nurse Practitioners stationed at the MFC would be able to safely determine if certain 911 calls could be handled by referring patients to community health clinics, dispatching the LAFD Nurse Practitioner Response Unit (NPRU), or by dispatching a taxi for transport, as opposed to dispatching an EMS unit to respond to the call. This project will decrease the call load, the unnecessary dispatch of scarce emergency resources, and ambulance transport of low acuity patients.