My world’s on fire, how ’bout yours?
In recent years, this has become a common refrain in California, where 95% of the state’s 3,087 hospitals, nursing homes, and mental health in-patient facilities are less than four miles from a “high fire threat zone,” according to a study released in 2023 by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“There is an urgent need for hospitals and healthcare systems to enhance their preparedness,” Robert Metzke, global head of sustainability at Dutch health tech company Royal Philips, told Healthcare Brew in an email.
Oakland, California-based nonprofit Kaiser Permanente is one of those health systems that’s been directly impacted by wildfires in recent years. Kaiser operates 40 hospitals and 614 facilities across various states—including Hawai‘i, where the system closed its Lahaina Clinic in August 2023 due to wildfires. (It reopened a temporary 5,200-square-foot West Maui space in March 2024.)
As extreme weather events like wildfires become more frequent and intense as a consequence of the climate crisis, Kaiser is putting an emphasis on helping patients in at-risk areas prepare, while also trying to make sure day-to-day operations aren’t greatly disrupted.
“Some of the challenges that we’re seeing really stem from not only the impact we see on our physical infrastructure, but most importantly, the impact we see on the communities surrounding the wildfires,” Seema Wadhwa, executive director of environmental stewardship at Kaiser, told Healthcare Brew.
Wildfires not only bring poor air quality that can worsen the effects of asthma and other respiratory diseases, but natural disasters like these can also make it more difficult for patients to get medications and access care in general, she said, such as how Hurricanes Helene and Milton led to IV supply chain shortages in October.
Preparing for the worst. To prepare for future wildfires and other extreme weather events, Kaiser Permanente’s environmental stewardship team, led by Wadhwa, is working to ensure its facilities have reliable energy sources like solar panels in the event power is knocked out, as well as taking other precautions, like creating a command center on-site, she said.
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Kaiser has also looked for ways to offer support for communities in the wake of disruptive weather events.
This has included initiatives around building climate resilience, supporting mental health, and building infrastructure in the community that can withstand future wildfires. Research published in psychology journal Behavior Sciences found in 2021 that people who had lived through a wildfire had increased rates of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, which in some cases persisted for years after the event.
Wadhwa pointed to recovery following wildfires in Santa Rosa, California, between 2017 and 2020. “We’ve now supported 65 projects totaling over $24 million to safeguard the most vulnerable populations in the community,” she said. Kaiser also distributes information to its patients on how to prepare for and the risks of various extreme weather events.
“There are opportunities for increased training and education programs to equip healthcare providers with the knowledge and skills needed to manage the influx of heat-related illnesses and vector-borne diseases,” Metzke said.
Looking to the future. Beyond bolstering its wildfire emergency preparedness, Kaiser has been addressing the climate crisis in other ways. In 2020, it became the first health system in the US to be certified as carbon neutral under the CarbonNeutral Protocol, a certification offered through global environmental group Climate Impact Partners.
Further, the health system is collaborating with the National Academy of Medicine on a forthcoming “health research agenda,” Wadhwa said, that aims to show a deeper correlation between climate change and health outcomes.
In Wadhwa’s opinion, collaboration across the industry is going to continue to be vital as the climate crisis continues.
“We are all seeing that climate [change] is here now. It’s impacting our patients now,” she said. “This is not work we have to do alone. Whether you are a small rural hospital or a large health system, there are others in this journey, and we’re only going to make an impact by working together.”