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A large study of 55,200 emergency department (ED) visits among adults aged 65 years and older found that heat-related risk varies by population, and higher-than-average “feels like” temperatures in the summer months are associated with greater all-cause ED use for EDs with predominantly Medicaid-covered populations. Researchers analyzed visits from May 1 to September 30 between 2022 to 2024 at 2 New York hospitals and compared the data, as published in JAMA Network Open. At a safety-net ED serving mostly Medicaid-enrolled patients, ED visits increased once the daily maximum heat index (a measure of how hot it feels to the human body when air temperature and humidity are combined) reached 66°F (odds ratio [OR] 1.10) and rose further at 90°F (OR 1.15) and 101°F (OR 1.24). Risk also increased on days when the heat index was 15–18°F above average. At the ED predominantly serving White, privately insured patients, no significant associations were observed for ED use and hot, humid summer days among adults aged 65 years and older. About half of the high-risk days during the study period did not trigger official heat alerts. The authors suggest clinicians should anticipate increased heat-related illness even on days without heat alerts because health advisories may underestimate risk. EHRs could be a source for daily heat warning strategies to alert clinicians to possible heat-related illness presentations, they suggest.
Record heat across the United States: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers an online heat and health tracker, which is currently showing moderate heat-related illness in several areas across the Southwest and Central Plains where spring has ushered in surprisingly high temperatures. Just as one example, last week, Arizona broke its previous record for March with temperatures peaking at 112°F.