As hot temperatures return, Atlanta hospitals expect more heat illnesses

“Our volume has been steadily increasing as the summer months march forward,” said Dr. Neha Verma, Piedmont Eastside’s Assistant Emergency Medical Director. “Heat is one of the factors that does increase our volume to a certain extent.”'

Verma said heat-stricken patients seeking care at Piedmont have presented with fatigue, dehydration, and syncope, or loss of consciousness for a short period of time. Those who work outdoors have been hit hardest, he said, in addition to those for whom high heat can also exacerbate certain medical conditions, like high blood pressure and diabetes.

To stay safe on the hottest days, doctors emphasize the need to hydrate. “We make sure that we have plenty of fluids, both (intravenous) and drinking, available to staff and patients as needed,” Verma said.

For those who must remain outside, finding shade is imperative, said Dr. Danny Branstetter, Chief Medical Officer for Kennestone Regional Medical Center. When shade isn’t available, “Produce your own,” Branstetter said. He recommended sun blocking umbrellas, tents and hats as options to avoid sun damage during peak heating hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Though applying sunscreen is a must while spending time outside, it can often melt off on the hottest and most humid of days, especially while exercising. To avoid this, Branstetter says just sweat inside, in the air conditioning, if possible. “Working out in the home — walking up and down the stairs and doing yoga — is a great alternative, especially for older adults,” he said.

He also says parents should keep infants out of the sun. The most hazardous component of sunlight, ultraviolet or UV light, can damage skin of any age. “Their skin is especially tender. Put a hat on them, and use a UV-blocking drape too.”

Verma says area hospitals are robust enough to handle spikes in patient volume from heat increases. But as natural disasters increase due to climate change, experts say the state’s medical infrastructure could face new stressors.

The rate of natural disasters in Georgia has more than doubled as the effects of climate change have made themselves felt. From 1980-2023, an annual average of 2.8 natural disaster events took place in the Peach State, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Yet over the last five years (2019—2023), that number jumped to 7.6 events per year in Georgia. Each disaster caused more than $1 billion in damage, NOAA said.

And hospitals haven’t always been spared.

Nationwide, from 2000-2017, extreme weather events in the U.S. caused 114 “climate-related hospital evacuations,” more than half of which required the evacuation of over 100 patients, according to a congressional report. Events included wildfires, hurricanes and winter storms.

Moreover, average annual temperatures in the U.S. Southeast have increased by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970, due to the burning of fossil fuels. When carbon dioxide from the burning fuels gets trapped in the atmosphere, a greenhouse effect takes place, leading to increased temperatures on Earth. Temperatures in Georgia and throughout the Southeast are projected to increase by 4 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, according to the U.S. government’s climate change website Globalchange.gov.

To track the extent of the problem in Georgia, the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in July released a climate and health indicator dashboard that provides data on the impact that climate change is having on human health in the state.

Yang Liu, one the creators, worries that longer stretches of hot temperatures could not only impact residents’ physical health, but also wear on Georgians’ mental health.

“There has been a well-established association between extreme heat and adverse mental health outcomes such as substance use disorders, anxiety and mood disorders,” Liu said.

While most studies looking at the threat of extreme heat focus on daytime heat, nights that remain hot can compound the effects of hot days, Liu said. “It is important to study the impact of nighttime heat exposure because nighttime temperatures have been rising more rapidly than daytime temperatures in the U.S. during the past decade due to climate change.”

Rising heat has also been linked to increases in violence, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

A Congressional report cautioned: “The U.S. health care system is only beginning to feel the damaging effects of climate-related weather events that will inevitably continue to disrupt operations across the continuum of care and exact a severe financial toll.”

The report also noted that unhoused populations could be most severely impacted.

“In the summer, dehydration and heat exhaustion are a huge threat,” said Rachel Reynolds, director of marketing for the Atlanta Mission. “The heating up of asphalt in metro Atlanta creates a deadly situation.”

Reynolds said providing water to those in need helps, “but it’s better to give them resources as to where they can go because they really shouldn’t be outside.”

Atlanta and some other cities open cooling centers on the hottest days for unhoused residents or those without a way to cool off. Verma from Piedmont says staff at the 25-hospital group make sure that unhoused people will have a safe place to go to after any hospitalization. “If they have any needs that need addressing we have a case manager present that can provide assistance,” he added.

The U.S. health care sector won’t just be impacted by climate change, but is also a factor driving rising temperatures.

Greenhouse gas emissions from hospitals and other parts of the U.S. health care system have risen by an estimated 6% between 2010 and 2018, and now account for 10% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee report. Most of those emissions are due energy use in commercial buildings like hospitals.