Climate change jeopardizes health care services, report says

By AMANDA SEITZ
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Medical centers around the country say fires, flooding, heat waves and other extreme weather are increasingly jeopardizing medical services, damaging health care facilities and forcing patients to flee their hospital beds. That’s according to findings released Thursday in a report from the House Ways and Means Committee. A majority of the 63 trade associations, hospital systems and community health centers that responded to the questionnaire say they have experienced at least one extreme weather event in the last five years. The facilities included represent roughly 25,000 medical facilities across the U.S. In some cases, the disasters forced closures or evacuations and cost health care systems millions of dollars.