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At Ground Zero—Emergency Units in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries Building Resilience for Climate Change and Human Health
Author(s) -
Rublee Caitlin,
Bills Corey,
Sorensen Cecilia,
Lemery Jay,
Calvello Hynes Emilie
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
world medical and health policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.326
H-Index - 11
ISSN - 1948-4682
DOI - 10.1002/wmh3.417
Subject(s) - resilience (materials science) , equity (law) , climate change , global health , business , emergency management , ground zero , health care , low and middle income countries , medicine , environmental resource management , political science , economic growth , developing country , economics , ecology , physics , biology , law , thermodynamics
Climate change is harming human health with disproportionate impacts on vulnerable populations. As extreme weather events are projected to increase, acute care services—the primary access point for patients during a disaster—will be increasingly stressed. The authors seek to assess current efforts to build resilience against climate‐related events in emergency units in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). A systematic review was done using Ovid Medline, Embase, Cochrane, and Global Health (CABI), combining LMICs, climate change, emergency care, and resilience terms. LMIC emergency units serve as a ground zero during times of disaster, yet countries have a myriad of emergency care systems, with varied stages of development and a limited capacity for surges in demand. There was little evidence and a paucity of standardization methods for building healthcare facility/system resilience. This study provides policy recommendations for strengthening LMIC emergency care systems to protect lives and advance health equity.