Patient transport greenhouse gas emissions from outpatient care at an integrated health care system in the Northwestern United States, 2015–2020

Introduction: Climate change threatens human health, and health care as an industry is responsible for a significant fraction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We examine the reduction in GHG emissions from transportation to outpatient clinic visits with the growth in telehealth services. Methods:...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Imelda Dacones, MD, Colin Cave, MD, Gregg L Furie, MD MHS, Cory A Ogden, MD MPH, Jonathan E Slutzman, MD
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Elsevier 2021
Materias:	Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/f8ba4f71f50a4618a3a53edf8bc1e9fa
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:f8ba4f71f50a4618a3a53edf8bc1e9fa
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:f8ba4f71f50a4618a3a53edf8bc1e9fa2021-11-18T04:53:50ZPatient transport greenhouse gas emissions from outpatient care at an integrated health care system in the Northwestern United States, 2015–20202667-278210.1016/j.joclim.2021.100024https://doaj.org/article/f8ba4f71f50a4618a3a53edf8bc1e9fa2021-08-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667278221000225https://doaj.org/toc/2667-2782Introduction: Climate change threatens human health, and health care as an industry is responsible for a significant fraction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We examine the reduction in GHG emissions from transportation to outpatient clinic visits with the growth in telehealth services. Methods: This is a retrospective review of outpatient care at a health system serving over 600,000 members. Using average distances, we calculate transportation-related GHG emissions for ambulatory visits. The ambulatory visit carbon intensity is the total GHG emissions normalized by number of patient visits annually. Results: From 2015 to 2020, total outpatient visits increased at 3.2% annually, to 2.7 million. Telehealth visits increased by an average of 53.2% annually while in-person visits saw modest gains of 1.5% annually until 2020, when they declined 46.2%. Transportation GHG emissions rose from 18.5 to 19.6 (in 2019) before declining to 10.5 kt CO2-eq in 2020. Ambulatory visit carbon intensity monotonically declined from 8 to 4 kg CO2-eq per visit. Conclusion: Increasing telehealth use in an integrated health system in the Pacific northwest of the United States corresponded to a dramatic decrease in ambulatory visit carbon intensity.Imelda Dacones, MDColin Cave, MDGregg L Furie, MD MHSCory A Ogden, MD MPHJonathan E Slutzman, MDElsevierarticlePublic aspects of medicineRA1-1270Meteorology. ClimatologyQC851-999ENThe Journal of Climate Change and Health, Vol 3, Iss , Pp 100024- (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999
spellingShingle	Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 Imelda Dacones, MD Colin Cave, MD Gregg L Furie, MD MHS Cory A Ogden, MD MPH Jonathan E Slutzman, MD Patient transport greenhouse gas emissions from outpatient care at an integrated health care system in the Northwestern United States, 2015–2020
description	Introduction: Climate change threatens human health, and health care as an industry is responsible for a significant fraction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We examine the reduction in GHG emissions from transportation to outpatient clinic visits with the growth in telehealth services. Methods: This is a retrospective review of outpatient care at a health system serving over 600,000 members. Using average distances, we calculate transportation-related GHG emissions for ambulatory visits. The ambulatory visit carbon intensity is the total GHG emissions normalized by number of patient visits annually. Results: From 2015 to 2020, total outpatient visits increased at 3.2% annually, to 2.7 million. Telehealth visits increased by an average of 53.2% annually while in-person visits saw modest gains of 1.5% annually until 2020, when they declined 46.2%. Transportation GHG emissions rose from 18.5 to 19.6 (in 2019) before declining to 10.5 kt CO2-eq in 2020. Ambulatory visit carbon intensity monotonically declined from 8 to 4 kg CO2-eq per visit. Conclusion: Increasing telehealth use in an integrated health system in the Pacific northwest of the United States corresponded to a dramatic decrease in ambulatory visit carbon intensity.
format	article
author	Imelda Dacones, MD Colin Cave, MD Gregg L Furie, MD MHS Cory A Ogden, MD MPH Jonathan E Slutzman, MD
author_facet	Imelda Dacones, MD Colin Cave, MD Gregg L Furie, MD MHS Cory A Ogden, MD MPH Jonathan E Slutzman, MD
author_sort	Imelda Dacones, MD
title	Patient transport greenhouse gas emissions from outpatient care at an integrated health care system in the Northwestern United States, 2015–2020
title_short	Patient transport greenhouse gas emissions from outpatient care at an integrated health care system in the Northwestern United States, 2015–2020
title_full	Patient transport greenhouse gas emissions from outpatient care at an integrated health care system in the Northwestern United States, 2015–2020
title_fullStr	Patient transport greenhouse gas emissions from outpatient care at an integrated health care system in the Northwestern United States, 2015–2020
title_full_unstemmed	Patient transport greenhouse gas emissions from outpatient care at an integrated health care system in the Northwestern United States, 2015–2020
title_sort	patient transport greenhouse gas emissions from outpatient care at an integrated health care system in the northwestern united states, 2015–2020
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/f8ba4f71f50a4618a3a53edf8bc1e9fa
work_keys_str_mv	AT imeldadaconesmd patienttransportgreenhousegasemissionsfromoutpatientcareatanintegratedhealthcaresysteminthenorthwesternunitedstates20152020 AT colincavemd patienttransportgreenhousegasemissionsfromoutpatientcareatanintegratedhealthcaresysteminthenorthwesternunitedstates20152020 AT gregglfuriemdmhs patienttransportgreenhousegasemissionsfromoutpatientcareatanintegratedhealthcaresysteminthenorthwesternunitedstates20152020 AT coryaogdenmdmph patienttransportgreenhousegasemissionsfromoutpatientcareatanintegratedhealthcaresysteminthenorthwesternunitedstates20152020 AT jonathaneslutzmanmd patienttransportgreenhousegasemissionsfromoutpatientcareatanintegratedhealthcaresysteminthenorthwesternunitedstates20152020
_version_	1718424952113201152

Patient transport greenhouse gas emissions from outpatient care at an integrated health care system in the Northwestern United States, 2015–2020

Ejemplares similares