Health care facilities resilient to climate change impacts.
16 Dec 2014-International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (MDPI AG)-Vol. 11, Iss: 12, pp 13097-13116
TL;DR: The toolkit helps health care facility officials identify gaps in climate change preparedness, direct allocation of adaptation resources and inform strategic planning to increase resiliency to climate change.
Abstract: Climate change will increase the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events and create risks that will impact health care facilities. Health care facilities will need to assess climate change risks and adopt adaptive management strategies to be resilient, but guidance tools are lacking. In this study, a toolkit was developed for health care facility officials to assess the resiliency of their facility to climate change impacts. A mixed methods approach was used to develop climate change resiliency indicators to inform the development of the toolkit. The toolkit consists of a checklist for officials who work in areas of emergency management, facilities management and health care services and supply chain management, a facilitator’s guide for administering the checklist, and a resource guidebook to inform adaptation. Six health care facilities representing three provinces in Canada piloted the checklist. Senior level officials with expertise in the aforementioned areas were invited to review the checklist, provide feedback during qualitative interviews and review the final toolkit at a stakeholder workshop. The toolkit helps health care facility officials identify gaps in climate change preparedness, direct allocation of adaptation resources and inform strategic planning to increase resiliency to climate change.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: This review, commissioned by the Research Councils UK Living With Environmental Change programme, concerns research on the impacts on health and social care systems in the United Kingdom of extreme weather events, under conditions of climate change.
Abstract: This review, commissioned by the Research Councils UK Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) programme, concerns research on the impacts on health and social care systems in the United Kingdom of extreme weather events, under conditions of climate change. Extreme weather events considered include heatwaves, coldwaves and flooding. Using a structured review method, we consider evidence regarding the currently observed and anticipated future impacts of extreme weather on health and social care systems and the potential of preparedness and adaptation measures that may enhance resilience. We highlight a number of general conclusions which are likely to be of international relevance, although the review focussed on the situation in the UK. Extreme weather events impact the operation of health services through the effects on built, social and institutional infrastructures which support health and health care, and also because of changes in service demand as extreme weather impacts on human health. Strategic planning for extreme weather and impacts on the care system should be sensitive to within country variations. Adaptation will require changes to built infrastructure systems (including transport and utilities as well as individual care facilities) and also to institutional and social infrastructure supporting the health care system. Care sector organisations, communities and individuals need to adapt their practices to improve resilience of health and health care to extreme weather. Preparedness and emergency response strategies call for action extending beyond the emergency response services, to include health and social care providers more generally.
96 citations
Cites background from "Health care facilities resilient to..."
...In Canada, Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH) was helpful in engaging stakeholders, and addressing issues of power relations between collaborating partners [135] and recent research has compared and reviewed reports of a variety of toolkits now available [136]....
[...]
...While our review was not internationally comprehensive, we note examples of research in Canada [131, 137], the USA [138, 139], the UK [120] and Australia [140], with calls for coordinated action to: reduce heat exposure; improve access to cooling; adapt the built environment; enhance surveillance and early warning systems and public awareness communications [141]....
[...]
TL;DR: The way in which resilience is currently applied in the empirical literature does not match its theoretical foundations, and knowledge from both quantitative and qualitative research traditions should be integrated in a comprehensive assessment framework to do justice to the complexities of the resilience concept.
Abstract: The concept of health system resilience has gained popularity in the global health discourse, featuring in UN policies, academic articles and conferences. While substantial effort has gone into the conceptualization of health system resilience, there has been no review of how the concept has been operationalized in empirical studies. We conducted an empirical review in three databases using systematic methods. Findings were synthesized using descriptive quantitative analysis and by mapping aims, findings, underlying concepts and measurement approaches according to the resilience definition by Blanchet et al. We identified 71 empirical studies on health system resilience from 2008 to 2019, with an increase in literature in recent years (62% of studies published since 2017). Most studies addressed a specific crisis or challenge (82%), most notably infectious disease outbreaks (20%), natural disasters (15%) and climate change (11%). A large proportion of studies focused on service delivery (48%), while other health system building blocks were side-lined. The studies differed in terms of their disciplinary tradition and conceptual background, which was reflected in the variety of concepts and measurement approaches used. Despite extensive theoretical work on the domains which constitute health system resilience, we found that most of the empirical literature only addressed particular aspects related to absorptive and adaptive capacities, with legitimacy of institutions and transformative resilience seldom addressed. Qualitative and mixed methods research captured a broader range of resilience domains than quantitative research. The review shows that the way in which resilience is currently applied in the empirical literature does not match its theoretical foundations. In order to do justice to the complexities of the resilience concept, knowledge from both quantitative and qualitative research traditions should be integrated in a comprehensive assessment framework. Only then will the theoretical 'resilience idea' be able to prove its usefulness for the research community.
78 citations
Cites background from "Health care facilities resilient to..."
...A further relatively distinct influence has been the contribution of specific checklists to assess facility and organizational resilience from the fields of disaster management and emergency preparedness (Paterson et al. 2014; Zhong et al. 2014a, 2015; Dobalian et al. 2016; Khan et al. 2018; Meyer et al. 2018)....
[...]
...2014a, 2015) or as a toolkit for facilities aiming to improve their climate resiliency (Paterson et al. 2014)....
[...]
...Studies from the public health sciences tended to converge in three groups: (1) quantitative studies focusing on service delivery, making use of service utilization indicators provide an easily accessible measure to assess resilience before, during and after a crisis (Paterson et al. 2014; Gizelis et al. 2017; Sochas et al. 2017; Kozuki et al. 2018; RayBennett et al. 2019), (2) qualitative studies focusing on the health workforce, influenced by ideas of ‘everyday resilience’ and addressing the contributions of social connectedness and leadership on 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18...
[...]
TL;DR: Using a new set of socioeconomic development trajectories, the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), along with the World Health Organization’s Operational Framework for Building Climate Resilient Health Systems, existing storylines are extended to illustrate how various aspects of health systems are likely to be affected under each SSP.
Abstract: A growing body of literature addresses how climate change is likely to have substantial and generally adverse effects on population health and health systems around the world. These effects are likely to vary within and between countries and, importantly, will vary depending on different socioeconomic development patterns. Transitioning to a more resilient and sustainable world to prepare for and manage the effects of climate change is likely to result in better health outcomes. Sustained fossil fuel development will likely result in continued high burdens of preventable conditions, such as undernutrition, malaria, and diarrheal diseases. Using a new set of socioeconomic development trajectories, the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), along with the World Health Organization's Operational Framework for Building Climate Resilient Health Systems, we extend existing storylines to illustrate how various aspects of health systems are likely to be affected under each SSP. We also discuss the implications of our findings on how the burden of mortality and the achievement of health-related Sustainable Development Goal targets are likely to vary under different SSPs.
55 citations
Cites background from "Health care facilities resilient to..."
...Additionally, practitioners must take appropriate steps to ensure that their facilities are prepared to handle various emergencies associated with climate and development shocks, including providing various redundant systems, so that facilities can safely operate in adverse conditions [33,43]....
[...]
...Health workers may be unable to provide services if their homes or facilities are damaged due to flood or storm events or if an infectious disease outbreak makes travel too risky [33]....
[...]
...Health workers may be unable to provide services if their homes or facilities are damaged due to flood or storm events or if an infectious disease outbreak makes travel too risky [33]....
[...]
...Additionally, practitioners must take appropriate steps to ensure that their facilities are pre ared to handle various emergencies associated with climate and development shocks, including providing various redundant systems, so that facilities can safely operate in adverse conditions [33,43]....
[...]
TL;DR: It is observed that high level of interaction between the healthcare system components is essential to reduce patient demands on hospitals and proper allocation and distribution of repair resources are key to achieving the desired level of functionality for the hospitals.
52 citations
TL;DR: Since diverse indicators affect hospital resilience, other studies should be conducted to propose some models or tools to quantify the hospital resilience in different countries and scopes with an all hazards approach.
Abstract: Hospitals play a vital role in disaster stricken regions. The resilient hospitals will be able to provide essential services to affected people and it can mitigate the risk of injuries during and after disasters. This study aimed to obtain the indicators required for the evaluation of hospital resilience. This systematic review was conducted in 2018. Through this systematic review, international electronic databases were investigated for the research studies published in English. The exclusion and inclusion criteria were determined to extract the hospital resilience indicators. These indicators will be used in order to develop a model to keep the system performance at an acceptable level during disasters. Out of 1794 research studies published until September 2018, 89 articles and guidelines with full text were surveyed. Thirty-two articles and guidelines were then selected and analyzed to collect the indicators related to hospital disaster resilience (HDR). The domains and the indicators were extracted from these selected research studies. The authors collected and categorized them into three domains and twenty seven subdomains. The three domains included constructive, infrastructural, and administrative resilience. The relevant indicators were designed for each subdomain to assess HDR. Since diverse indicators affect hospital resilience, other studies should be conducted to propose some models or tools to quantify the hospital resilience in different countries and scopes with an all hazards approach.
47 citations
References
More filters
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: Drafting Authors: Neil Adger, Pramod Aggarwal, Shardul Agrawala, Joseph Alcamo, Abdelkader Allali, Oleg Anisimov, Nigel Arnell, Michel Boko, Osvaldo Canziani, Timothy Carter, Gino Casassa, Ulisses Confalonieri, Rex Victor Cruz, Edmundo de Alba Alcaraz, William Easterling, Christopher Field, Andreas Fischlin, Blair Fitzharris.
Abstract: Drafting Authors: Neil Adger, Pramod Aggarwal, Shardul Agrawala, Joseph Alcamo, Abdelkader Allali, Oleg Anisimov, Nigel Arnell, Michel Boko, Osvaldo Canziani, Timothy Carter, Gino Casassa, Ulisses Confalonieri, Rex Victor Cruz, Edmundo de Alba Alcaraz, William Easterling, Christopher Field, Andreas Fischlin, Blair Fitzharris, Carlos Gay García, Clair Hanson, Hideo Harasawa, Kevin Hennessy, Saleemul Huq, Roger Jones, Lucka Kajfež Bogataj, David Karoly, Richard Klein, Zbigniew Kundzewicz, Murari Lal, Rodel Lasco, Geoff Love, Xianfu Lu, Graciela Magrín, Luis José Mata, Roger McLean, Bettina Menne, Guy Midgley, Nobuo Mimura, Monirul Qader Mirza, José Moreno, Linda Mortsch, Isabelle Niang-Diop, Robert Nicholls, Béla Nováky, Leonard Nurse, Anthony Nyong, Michael Oppenheimer, Jean Palutikof, Martin Parry, Anand Patwardhan, Patricia Romero Lankao, Cynthia Rosenzweig, Stephen Schneider, Serguei Semenov, Joel Smith, John Stone, Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, David Vaughan, Coleen Vogel, Thomas Wilbanks, Poh Poh Wong, Shaohong Wu, Gary Yohe
7,720 citations
TL;DR: Although vector-borne diseases will expand their reach and death tolls, especially among elderly people, will increase because of heatwaves, the indirect effects of climate change on water, food security, and extreme climatic events are likely to have the biggest effect on global health.
2,061 citations
TL;DR: Mitigation of climate change by reducing the use of fossil fuels and increasing a number of uses of the renewable energy technologies should improve health in the near-term by reducing exposure to air pollution.
834 citations
TL;DR: The 2006 California heat wave had a substantial effect on morbidity, including regions with relatively modest temperatures, which suggests that population acclimatization and adaptive capacity influenced risk.
Abstract: Deaths from heat waves in the United States and Europe have been described in a number of studies (Basu and Samet 2002; Donoghue et al 2003; Hajat et al 2006; Kinney et al 2008; Medina-Ramon et al 2006; Naughton et al 2002; Semenza et al 1996; Vandentorren et al 2004), but there have been relatively few studies of heat-related morbidity (Kovats et al 2004; Mastrangelo et al 2006; Nitschke et al 2007; Semenza et al 1999) Increased mortality during heat waves has been attributed mainly to cardiovascular illness (13–90%) and diseases of the cerebrovascular (6–52%) and respiratory systems (up to 14%) (Kilbourne 1999), especially among the elderly (Kovats and Ebi 2006) Heat stress can rapidly become life threatening, especially among those with limited access to immediate medical attention (Mastrangelo et al 2006) People with severe heat stroke symptoms have little time to seek treatment in emergency departments (EDs) or hospitals (Kovats and Ebi 2006; Kovats et al 2004; Naughton et al 2002; Semenza et al 1996)
Previous studies have reported different patterns of morbidity in contrast to mortality patterns during heat waves Hospital admissions during heat waves have been reported to increase among both older and younger adults, especially among adults living in institutions or engaging in outdoor activities involving exertion (Johnson et al 2005; Kovats and Ebi 2006) Most admissions were for heat-related conditions, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke, dehydration and electrolyte disorders, and acute renal failure (Kovats and Ebi 2006; Mastrangelo et al 2006; Semenza 1999; Semenza et al 1999) Some increases in admissions for neurologic conditions and mental illnesses (Kovats and Ebi 2006) and ambulance transport for violence-related causes (Nitschke et al 2007) have been reported A study of emergency hospital admissions in London (Kovats et al 2004) failed to find statistically significant increases in total emergency hospital admissions during extreme heat, although increases were found for respiratory and renal illnesses in children 0–4 years of age and for respiratory illness in people ≥ 75 years of age In other studies, hospitalizations for cardiovascular diseases have decreased slightly (3%) during heat waves (Mastrangelo et al 2006) The relationship between heat and morbidity in any specific area may be affected by local population demographics, economic well-being, underlying disease risk, the presence of vulnerable subpopulations, weather variability, physiologic acclimatization, and locally available adaptations (Kinney et al 2008)
During mid- to late July 2006, an extreme heat wave affected much of the state of California, breaking daily maximum temperature records at seven sites and exceeding minimum temperature records at 11 meteorologic stations, especially from 16 through 26 July Both the intensity and duration of the heat wave were exceptional, and records for most consecutive days reaching ≥ 100°F were broken in the Central Valley region (Kozlowski and Edwards 2007) The statewide mean temperature for July 2006 was 4°F above the long-term climatologic average, with some stations in central and southern California recording the warmest July on record (Edwards 2006) County coroners and medical examiners reported at least 140 deaths from extreme heat recorded between 15 July and 1 August 2006 (California Department of Health Services 2007)
This event offered a unique opportunity to study heat-related morbidity patterns in a large US study area (> 163,000 square miles) and population (37 million California residents) Better understanding of the patterns of morbidity during heat waves is an important tool for public health practitioners, because more intense, more frequent, and longer duration heat waves are projected for the coming decades (Meehl and Tebaldi 2004) The health impacts of climate change are gaining considerable attention (Frumkin et al 2008), with increases in heat wave–related illness and death among the most likely related challenges to public health (Confalonieri et al 2007; Jackson and Naumoff Shields 2008; Kovats and Hajat 2008) The 2006 heat wave may thus represent a sentinel event of a major public health challenge associated with climate change To evaluate the effects of extreme heat on morbidity during the 2006 heat wave, the California Department of Public Health and the Natural Resources Defense Council investigated hospitalizations and ED visits for certain illnesses to discern regional patterns by diagnosis, age, and race/ethnicity One of the goals of the present study was to learn which illnesses are exacerbated by heat waves in California and lead people to seek medical attention, thus providing opportunities for early intervention and public education to prevent heat-related illness and death
628 citations
TL;DR: A public health approach to climate change is proposed, based on the essential public health services, that extends to both clinical and population health services and emphasizes the coordination of government agencies, academia, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations.
Abstract: There is scientific consensus that the global climate is changing, with rising surface temperatures, melting ice and snow, rising sea levels, and increasing climate variability. These changes are expected to have substantial impacts on human health. There are known, effective public health responses for many of these impacts, but the scope, timeline, and complexity of climate change are unprecedented. We propose a public health approach to climate change, based on the essential public health services, that extends to both clinical and population health services and emphasizes the coordination of government agencies (federal, state, and local), academia, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations.
545 citations