Hayward in National Spotlight
Looking for innovations in health care in the United States, a producer for nationally broadcast PBS News Hour recently came to Hayward to learn about and tell the story of Hayward Firehouse Clinic.
The Firehouse Clinic is a trailblazing partnership of the City of Hayward, Alameda County Health Services Agency and Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center, Inc., bringing primary and preventative medical services to South Hayward.
The collaboration co-located a clinic on the strategically positioned grounds of a new city fire station. It then began leveraging the role firefighter paramedics play in the community to enhance coordination between emergency medical services and primary care.
Through this model, Firehouse Clinic seeks to create a more effective, patient-centered approach to care that reduces unnecessary emergency calls and improves outcomes by directing patients to the most appropriate locations and levels of treatment.
Firehouse Clinic has logged more than 6,000 patient visits since it opened in November 2015. Hours of operation have expanded to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. In the past year, the clinic has added laboratory services, and plans to start offering dental care later this summer.
