Transportation-Associated Carbon Dioxide Emissions Avoided by Use of Telehealth Through COVID-19 Pandemic.

Abstract

Background: Increasing carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere contributes to Earth's warming, which has negative impacts on human health. The health care system is a major contributor to CO₂ emissions. Telehealth has the capacity to reduce health-care-related emissions by eliminating patient travel to in-person appointments. Methods: Data were obtained from Nebraska Medicine's (NM) electronic medical record. Parameters included patient zip code, provider location, calendar year of visit, and provider specialty. Euclidean distance from centroid zip code to clinic location was calculated. Environmental Protection Agency estimates were used to convert mileage to CO₂ saved. Results: During the period January 1, 2019, to January 31, 2022, the NM health care system completed 214,241 telemedicine visits for patients whose home zip code is within Nebraska, resulting in greater than 2,600 metric tons of CO₂ avoided. Telehealth appointments increased by more than 22,000% from 2019 to 2020. An average of 12.38 kg of CO₂ was avoided with each telehealth visit. Medical specialties that avoided the most CO₂ included family medicine, endocrinology, and infectious disease. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the capability of the NM health care system to rapidly adjust to an emergency pandemic by drastically increasing the use of telehealth, which also avoided thousands of tons of transportation-associated CO₂ emissions. Telehealth appointments increased during the height of the pandemic by more than 22,000%. Telehealth is an effective CO₂ emission-reducing strategy and a worthy avenue to further explore reduced health-care-related emissions.