Health Care Facilities (HCFs) & Climate Change

The document details how climate-related events disrupt health care delivery in Canada by damaging infrastructure and reducing access to supplies and services. It advocates for the use of resiliency checklists, vulnerability assessments, and stress testing to prepare facilities. To mitigate their own environmental impact, the text suggests reducing high-intensity energy use, phasing out potent inhalation anesthetic gases, and adopting sustainable procurement, as 90% of the health sector's GHGs originate upstream. Specific recommendations include transitioning to plant-based diets, expanding telemedicine to reduce travel emissions, and establishing a sustainability support office based on the English National Health Services model.

• Climate-related events disrupt health care facilities in multiple ways, including damaging building envelopes and mechanical systems, reducing access to critical utilities like power and water, and increasing emergency room admissions for heat stress and respiratory distress.
• Health care facilities in Canada have the highest energy use intensity of all commercial and institutional buildings, at 2.45 Gigajoules/m2; hospitals alone account for 4.1% of the building sector's total energy use despite representing only 0.2% of such buildings.
• The Canadian health sector's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were estimated at 4.6% of the national total in 2015, with emissions in this sector growing at double the national average rate (10% vs 5%) between 2009 and 2015.

APA

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (n.d.). Health Care Facilities (HCFs) & Climate Change. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Module-6-Factsheet-FINAL.pdf#new_tab

Chicago

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Health Care Facilities (HCFs) & Climate Change. n.d. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Module-6-Factsheet-FINAL.pdf#new_tab.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment |title=Health Care Facilities (HCFs) & Climate Change |url=https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Module-6-Factsheet-FINAL.pdf#new_tab |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{canadianassociationofphysiciansfortheenvironmentndhealth, author = {{Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}}, title = {{Health Care Facilities (HCFs) \& Climate Change}}, institution = {Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}, url = {https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Module-6-Factsheet-FINAL.pdf#new_tab}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }