Pirate's Cove

It’s always something new with these Warmists. Always looking for some doom. Something to link and blame

Is Climate Change Keeping Patients from Vital Doctor Appointments?
Patients 65 and older, those with chronic conditions, had strongest association with missed appointments linked to climate change.

Temperature extremes, becoming increasingly frequent due to growing global climate change, are associated with higher rates of missed primary care appointments, according to a recently published study from Drexel University researchers in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The researchers found that rates of missed appointments increased by 0.72% for every 1°F decrease in daily maximum temperatures below 39°F and increased by 0.64% for every 1°F increase above 89°F. Patients 65 and older and those with chronic conditions had stronger associations with an increased rate of missed appointments.

“These findings should be a clarion call for clinical teams, including their practice managers to adapt to ensure care access for patients before the problem gets worse,” said senior author Nathalie S. May, MD, a professor in Drexel University College of Medicine.

The team tallied 1,048,575 appointments from 91,580 adult patients at 13 university outpatient clinics in Philadelphia from Jan. 2009 through Dec. 2019 and linked those with daily maximum temperature and precipitation data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The group controlled for seasonal trends, sociodemographic attributes and chronic disease status.

“During the covid pandemic, telemedicine became an integral part of healthcare delivery,” said Drexel College of Medicine Clinical Associate Professor Janet H. Fitzpatrick, MD, one of the lead authors on the study. “With worsening climate change, this study supports advocating for permanent telemedicine coverage as an option to ensure patients can get the care they need.”

And? It gets hot in the summer. Realistically, this is anecdotal, as there is no way to compare this to previous Holocene warm periods. You can’t even really compare it to 50 years ago very well. This “survey” only looks at a simple 10 year period. Of course, the climate cult doesn’t care, they know that their little cult base will eat this up and regurgitate the headline.