TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Oct 11, 2024

Shrinking hospital capacity in Tennessee leaves at-risk communities more vulnerable to extreme heat, a new study finds. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that government officials' tools for measuring heat vulnerability often don't consider access to health care. By including hospital bed capacity in calculations, the study found a "major increase" in vulnerability for many Tennessee counties, the Tennessee Lookout reports. The article notes that the study has limitations and mainly focuses on the population of people aged 65 and older. One of the study’s main researchers expressed hope the study will encourage elected officials and policy makers to consider health care accessibility and hospital capacity as one of the main factors of heat vulnerability and ask how their constituencies can be better prepared.