Primary Care Clinician Preparedness for Weather Events

Context: Primary care clinicians are on the front lines of many weather events and are continuously affected by them through their patients’ health conditions or through the impact on their practices. Little information exists about how primary care clinicians are prepared for the weather events that occur in their area.

Objective: This study was completed to understand how primary care clinicians are prepared for weather events in their area and what they have learned from past experiences.

Study Design and Analysis: Survey with follow-up interviews. Descriptive statistics and Fisher’s exact tests.

Setting or Dataset: American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) National Research Network.

Population Studied: AAFP National Research Network members with active email addresses (1900+) who have consented to receiving surveys.

Intervention/Instrument: 12-item online questionnaire with questions on preparedness for weather events; Interviews.

Outcome Measures: Survey responses and interview answers for preparedness for weather events.

Results: Most respondents were physicians (55, 88.7%) and spent the majority of their time in patient care (38. 61.3%). Respondents felt very well prepared/well prepared (n=55) for rain (81.4%), thunderstorms (69.1%), cold/warm fronts (66.6%), extreme heat events (58.2%), and snow/snowstorm (58.1%). Respondents felt the least prepared for wildfires (12.7%), hurricanes (14.5%), tornadoes (16.4%), and dust storms (16.4%). Respondents typically got their weather information from (n=51) an app (64.7%), National Weather Service (56.9%), and local TV (52.9%). Interviewed respondents (n=9) said they prepared for weather events by installing generators, hiring companies to remove debris/snow, removing vaccines to an offsite facility when the power fails, and have systems in place to let patients know when there are issues.

Conclusions: Primary care clinicians’ preparedness to weather events was dependent on those they had experienced previously with their practices. Continuing to understand how clinicians prepare for weather events will help other clinicians prepare for potential adverse effects in the future.