Abstract
Background:
The development of integrated care occurs alongside climate emergency, where transport is a large contributor to carbon emissions (1). Care previously delivered in hospital outpatients, or a central ‘hub’ is now being delivered in integrated care clinics, “spokes”. We aimed to assess the environmental impact of transport to integrated care clinics.
Methods:
Geriatric Medicine Integrated Care attendances from January 2023 to March 2023 were included. Distance from the patient’s home address to the location of Integrated Care Clinic(spoke), and to the affiliated hospital(hub) were recorded in kilometres.
For the primary analysis, we have not considered staff travel as there was heterogeneity in number of staff per clinic and distance travelled per staff member.
Where more than one route was available, the shortest distance was recorded. Carbon emissions were estimated based on kilometres travelled by a standard new passenger car (2).
Results:
Among 206 clinic attendances, the mean distance to ‘spoke’ clinic was 16.06 km (15.98) compared to a mean distance of 39.29 km (17.82) to the ‘hub’ clinic.
The estimated total distance travelled by patients to integrated care clinics was 3293.45km, whereas the distance which would have been travelled to ‘hub’ clinics was 8055.85km. Total carbon emissions for 3-month travel to ‘spoke’ clinics were estimated at 371kg, compared to 907kg to the ‘hub’.
Conclusion:
The development of integrated care services, which provides necessary care to older adults, may also have an environmental advantage.
Healthcare’s contribution to climate change action is another incentive to invest in integrated care services.
References:
1. CO₂ emissions [Internet]. 2023. Available from: https://www.seai.ie/data-and-insights/seai-statistics/key-statistics/co…
2. Average CO2 emissions from New Passenger Cars, by EU Country [Internet]. 2022. Available from: https://www.acea.auto/figure/average-co2-emissions-from-new-passenger-c…