Celebrating our climate champions

What motivates you to work at the intersection of health care and the climate?  

For many of us, our work in the health sector and the opportunity to support climate action and environmental sustainability efforts have a strong personal and professional value alignment.  

By adapting to the risks from climate change while reducing our environmental impact through facility design and operations, we are supporting the health of our communities and planet, for now and future generations. It is a privilege to be able to support our health system, that, in return, serves our communities.  

What are you most proud of in your work addressing climate change? 

We recently developed the Climate Change and Sustainability Roadmap, which focuses on mitigation, adaptation and transformation to reduce our operational risks while advancing IH’s readiness for building a more sustainable health-care system. The Roadmap is a strategic document that provides an overarching strategy to help guide Interior Health towards a more sustainable future as an organization, health-care provider and key community member. This document is the product of many hours and years of interest and shared effort across the organization to advance sustainability and climate resilience efforts.   

What opportunities do you see in your practice to mitigate climate change? 

As Interior Health’s infrastructure is aging and many building components are at the end of their life, when rebuilding, replacing or retrofitting, we assess the opportunity to not only upgrade our systems, but to create proactive plans to minimize climate risk, and design future facilities through a low carbon lens. 

By assessing climate risks to our facilities, we are working towards reducing overall organization-wide risk, reducing long-term operational and maintenance costs, aligning with greenhouse gas emission reduction strategies provincially, and maintaining service delivery standards. To learn more about our approach to minimizing climate risk, we discuss this further in our 2022 Climate Change Accountability Report.  

What message do you want to share with IH patients, clients and staff? 

As health-care leaders, we have a responsibility to protect our patients and the communities we serve from the health impacts of climate change. This is a moral and operational imperative. At its core, we all have a role to play in delivering health care that is environmentally responsible.  

I want to encourage IH staff, patients and clients to get involved in these efforts. Interior Health has implemented many initiatives to date to transform our health-care system, and these changes, both big and small, can and really do make a difference. 

Dr. Ilona Hale is a family physician from Kimberley. She has collaborated with the Environmental Sustainability team on several projects.  

What motivates you to work at the intersection of health care and the climate?  

In my job, I’m a doctor, so I’m good at fixing people up once they’re sick. But it’s always made a lot more sense to me to prevent people from being sick – that’s really what we all want. Concern for the natural environment that sustains us has always been important to me and it has always influenced the choices I make in how I live my life.  

Until recently, it was challenging to bring this perspective into my professional life because the concept of planetary health was not well accepted or understood by mainstream medicine. Now that has all changed, and I finally am able to combine two of the things I care about most: quality health care and environmental sustainability. I feel like I have found the sweet spot between what really needs to be done and what I love doing and what I am good at. 

What are you most proud of in your work addressing climate change? 

We just finished two big projects, and I am excited about both. The first is bringing the rural / generalist perspective to the field of planetary health that, so far, has been dominated by urban specialists in tertiary care. With the Division of Family Practice, we created a resource to bring the concepts of planetary health or environmental stewardship into primary care practice.

The second project with the Interior Health Patient Quality Improvement program, is introducing the concepts of environmental sustainability into the quality improvement world. 

What opportunities do you see in your practice to mitigate climate change? 

This is a great question because it is something that has changed quite a bit for me and others in this field over the past couple of years. We used to focus on the physical waste we see in our clinics or hospitals and think about energy efficiency of buildings when we were trying to reduce our impact at work.  

But recently, research has shown us that health care’s biggest environmental impact comes from how we practise – the medications we prescribe, the procedures we choose to do and the investigations we order. Now of course these things are often essential to good patient care but up to 30 per cent of the time, these things are unnecessary and lead to no benefit for patients. Sometimes they even lead to harmful side effects. We can actually improve care and reduce our carbon footprint by being more careful about the tests and treatments we order. 

We also need to make sure we are not under-using proven effective disease prevention strategies like immunization, cancer screening, mental health and social support and basic healthy lifestyle promotion. 

And finally, we need to spend more time listening to patients to find out “what matters to you?” Many times, patients just accept the treatments we suggest because they don’t know that there are options. When patients are well-informed, they often choose less, rather than more medicine. 

What message do you want to share with IH patients, clients and staff? 

We need to all start thinking about what we can do in our own roles every day. Although big changes are needed at policy levels, every provider, patient and staff person can make changes by asking: Is this necessary? What are the risks and benefits? What happens if I do nothing or just watch and wait? Can I reduce waste or improve the efficiency in what I am doing? Is there an alternative with lower environmental impact?  

Patients and clients can ask questions and make sure they are fully informed about their options and are clear about their preferences. 

Kady works from a population health perspective to address the impacts of and adapt to the ongoing challenges of climate change on the overall health of communities. 

What motivates you to work at the intersection of climate and health care?  

Coming from a population health background, I have always felt motivated by action that is focused on addressing the determinants of health such as our social networks, our natural and built environments and our economy.  

I quickly realized that climate change events such as flooding, wildfires or extreme heat can have major and compounding impacts on our determinants of health, which in turn impact the health of our communities. I feel like there is such an opportunity for us to take action on climate change in a way that also supports healthy and livable communities.  

What are you most proud of in your work addressing climate change? 

At this point, I am most proud of the development of the IH Climate Change and Sustainability Roadmap. It was the first major project that I worked on in my role and allowed me the opportunity to work with folks across portfolios, meet provincial colleagues and work with a very innovative consulting team.  

The Roadmap sets an overall direction and initial direction for how Interior Health can create a healthy and resilient healthcare system as well as contribute to the health and well-being of communities within in the IH region. 

What opportunities do you see in your practice to mitigate climate change? 

I am fortunate that my entire job is focused on climate change, so I have many opportunities to support or influence climate adaptation and mitigation actions within the organization and externally. Personally, I see opportunities in the future to better bridge actions happening internally with actions happening in our communities for more collaborative opportunities.  

What message(s) do you want to share with IH patients, clients and staff? 

We need a climate change and sustainability lens integrated into decision making and operational implementation across all departments and programs in IH. I think we all can have a role to play to make that change. It will take grassroots initiatives, overarching organizational strategy and policy – and everything in between – to support the health and well-being of our clients, employees and communities. 

Drs. Kyle Merritt, Jim Wiedrick and Lee MacKay led the removal of the anesthetic gas desflurane from 75 per cent of hospital procedures. The gas has a 13x greater impact on global warming when compared to sevoflurane. 

Dr. Kyle Merritt 

What motivates you to work at the intersection of climate and health care? 

Working on planetary health projects allows me to combine my medical skills with a passion for protecting the planet and everyone who depends on it. For many years, I didn't see a connection between my patient's health and the health of the planet, but as this has become more evident, I am feeling increasing urgency to work to support planetary health advocacy.  

What are you most proud of in your work addressing climate change?  

Before becoming active in this area, I had the sense that most of my colleagues cared about climate and wanted to do something but didn't have an outlet. As we have gotten organized and taken on projects, I have been proud to see my friends and colleagues in health care step up and work in this area- making this a priority amidst clinical, family and other imperatives. 

What opportunities do you see in your practice to mitigate climate change? 

There are many opportunities in clinical practice to mitigate climate change, often simply by following guidelines and avoiding medications and investigations when not indicated. While our own personal practice matters, we have to understand that we can't be successful without systemic change. This will require us all working together, rather than focusing on individual actions. 

Dr. Jim Wiedrick
 
What motivates you to work at the intersection of climate and health care?  

We only get the gift of one body - we should treat our body well. We only get the gift of one planet - we should treat our planet well. 

What are you most proud of in your work addressing climate change? 

Seeing the emergence of collegial consensus and pride in the operations of our facility. 

What opportunities do you see in your practice to mitigate climate change? 

Two words: eliminating disposables. 

What message(s) do you want to share with IH patients, clients and staff?  

Where we find mediocrity in our practices, let's strive for better.  

Dr. Lee MacKay

What motivates you to do work at the intersection of climate and health care?

I feel climate change is the greatest emerging threat to the health and wellbeing of my patient population ,so as a physician I feel it is my duty to work on this.

What are you most proud of in your work to address climate change?

I am proud that our small rural hospital has been able to change the anesthetic gas used to lessen climate impact, and my work on switching from meter dose inhalers (MDI) to dry powder inhalers (DPI).

What opportunities do you see in your practice to mitigate climate change?

Given that MDI use contributes up to 4 per cent of our health systems total climate impact, I feel this is the most significant opportunity for mitigation.

What message(s) do you want to share with IH patients, clients and staff?

If as a physician or pharmacist you prescribe Salbutamol, or use this medication as a patient, consider switching to Terbutaline if this is an option. You'll help offset greenhouse gas emissions equivalent of 290km worth of driving a gas car for a year.

What motivates you to work at the intersection of climate and health care?  

I have always been interested in how climate change is influencing our day-to-day lives and the world around us. There are so many perspectives and lenses you can apply on the intersection of climate and health care, whether it be facility focused, health impacts, organizational etc.  

Working in health care, we are all responsible for the safe effective delivery of care to the folks we serve in our region. My main motivation in doing this work is the people that live, work and deliver care in our communities. I want to be part of a system that is not only responding to climate change, but also embeds sustainable action into organizational culture. 

What are you most proud of in your work addressing climate change? 

I am incredibly proud of the work our portfolio is doing as part of the Sustainability Engagement Program. To date we have six Environmental Sustainability Committees:  

• Central Okanagan, which includes members from Kelowna General Hospital, community sites and long-term care sites 
• Invermere and District Hospital, which includes members from IDH and Columbia House long-term care 
• Kootenay Lake Hospital  
• Penticton, which includes members from Penticton Regional Hospital, Penticton Health Centre and Mental Health and Substance Use  
• Shuswap Lake General Hospital which includes members from SLH and Bastion Place 
• Vernon Jubilee Hospital  

The Committees work on initiatives that engage staff on embedding sustainability as part of the culture at the site, encourage and empower staff to take sustainable action, in their clinical, administrative or day-to-day practice. The program has been growing thanks to the passion and commitment of the staff involved. 

What opportunities do you see in your practice to mitigate climate change? 

Climate change is affecting our facilities, clinical operations and the way we operate our organization. We are looking forward to offering opportunities for IH to become better educated on actions that can be taken to mitigate climate change and learn about actions that are being taken behind the scenes.  

From climate risk assessments on our buildings, to the development of early warning systems, such as the Heat Alert Response System, there is so much being done.  

What message(s) do you want to share with IH patients, clients and staff? 

If you have an idea, you’re curious about something, or maybe you just want to get involved – get in touch with us. There’s so much interest, I would be thrilled to support you on creating sustainable change at IH.