Essential hospitals are critical first responders in the climate crisis
Leading medical journals have declared climate change the “greatest threat” to public health and that threat is unfolding in emergency rooms and health clinics nationwide. Clinicians face an ever-larger caseload of climate-related illnesses, from heatstroke to worsening chronic disease. Last fall, floods in Tennessee turned hospital corridors into whitewater rapids, while patients were rescued from the roof by helicopter. And extreme weather, along with chronically underfunded utility grids, has caused a dramatic increase in power outages in recent years. During these outages, lifesaving medicines go bad, electronic health records are inaccessible, and essential medical equipment — including ventilators — shuts down.
Essential hospitals are especially hard hit. Because climate change reveals — and exacerbates — social inequities, the people served by essential hospitals are also those most vulnerable. These facilities play an indispensable role in the health care system by treating people who can’t afford to pay due to economic hardship and by serving rural and historically underserved and marginalized communities. This critical role doesn’t come without cost. In 2023, essential hospitals provided nearly $9 billion in free or reduced-cost care and US communities faced 28 weather and climate disasters that each resulted in $1 billion in damages.
The good news is that essential hospitals — and the rest of the health care sector — can better serve patients and prepare for climate disruption by investing in sustainability and resilience. For example, efficiency upgrades can dramatically reduce energy use, freeing financial resources for patient care. Solar panels augmented with battery storage can keep the lights on — and the ventilators running — when the larger grid goes down. Also, the health care sector accounts for an estimated 8.5 percent of total US greenhouse gas emissions and hospitals are the second most energy-intensive facilities in the country. So, reducing hospitals’ energy use and emissions will lower climate risks for everyone.