Climate change is causing an increase in prolonged periods of extreme heat, increasing the frequency of health care utilization for heat-related illness. According to a recent report from the Center for American Progress, using data averaged across 5 consecutive hot summers in my home state of Virginia, heat events caused (per summer):
- Almost 400 additional ambulatory—or outpatient—care visits for heat-related illness
- Almost 7,000 additional emergency department visits, including more than 4,600 visits for heat-related or heat-adjacent illness
- Almost 2,000 additional heat-related hospital admissions, mostly for heat-adjacent illness
If the Virginia data were extrapolated nationally, heat event days would be responsible for almost 235,000 emergency department visits and more than 56,000 hospital admissions for heat-related or heat-adjacent illness, adding approximately $1 billion in health care costs each summer.
Heat events and other extreme weather caused by climate change take a particularly high toll on people who live and work in rural areas. @Patrick Boyle examined this issue—and the dearth of rural-focused health care/climate change research—in a recent AAMCNews article.
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Nicole Buckley
Communications Strategist
Association of American Medical Colleges
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