The weather. It's a topic that doesn't come up often in hospital news reporting, but this summer is set to be one of the hottest on record, and many hospitals are already grappling with the consequences of extreme heat.
"We're overcrowded with patients," Frank LoVecchio, DO, an emergency medicine physician at Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix — a city that has seen a record 25 straight days of temperatures above 110 degrees — told NBC News in a July 16 report. At the time, 20 percent of patients seen in the emergency room were there for heat-related issues. "I've been working here since 1996, this same hospital, and this is one of the worst summers because we've had so many days in a row … [of] this super warm weather."
New Mexico is on track to break records for heat-related emergency department visits, according to state health department data cited by local news outlet KRQE. CDC data also indicates the number of heat-related illnesses and emergency department visits in the U.S. have increased year over year.
As of July 25, more than 40 million people in the U.S. were under heat advisories. Temperatures were set to hit or exceed 110 degrees in cities such as Palm Springs, Calif.; Phoenix; and Las Vegas. El Paso, Texas, has also seen a record 39 days with temperatures above 100 degrees.
In addition to capacity strain, persistent high temperatures may also affect hospital operations and finances. For one Texas hospital, keeping air conditioning systems running during a heat wave means extra monitoring and maintenance work, according to local news outlet KETK
Overall, rising global temperatures and extreme heat cost healthcare about $1 billion each summer, new findings estimate.