Grant: Project Grant - PA: Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies Research

Pollution is a leading cause of sickness and death globally and climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions is the number one public health issue of the 21st century. Pollution was responsible for 9 million premature deaths globally in 2015. Extreme weather events, air pollution, natural resource insecurity and food and water-borne illness account for 150,000 deaths world wide each year. Ironically, hospitals and the healthcare system are major contributors to environmental pollutants that adversely affect health. The impact that healthcare has on the environment is gaining awareness and attention and we are socially responsible to address this issue. We are proposing to conduct a series of scoping reviews of the literature with the following aims: 1) to describe the existing evidence investigating the environmental sustainability in hospitals and identify gaps for further research, 2) identify barriers and facilitators to climate action in hospitals, 3) describe the methods and tools used to measure the environmental impact of hospital practice. The output of this research will identify successful interventions that healthcare systems can implement now as well as provide a framework and priorities for future research. Our plan for disseminating our research findings is intended to encourage and engage other healthcare professionals and researchers to become more aware of climate change issues related to healthcare practice and participate in environmental stewardship activities.