Extreme Heat Planning in Boston, Massachusetts

The Boston Public Health Commission’s Office of Public Health Preparedness (OPHP), in partnership with Office of Energy and Environment (OEE) and Office of Emergency Management (OEM), worked to create an updated extreme temperatures plan for the City of Boston. The planning process had three main goals:

• Improve coordination and planning across city agencies
• Create new communications materials for public information sharing
• Approach extreme temperatures from a public health and health equity perspective

To achieve this, OPHP led an citywide process to revise temperature thresholds to more accurately reflect health risks for extreme heat and cold events, as well as streamline coordination efforts.

In summer 2019, OPHP piloted this new model of improved monitoring and coordination. This process focused on improving notification lead time for city and healthcare partners to better inform decision making. This talk will focus on the results and outcomes of that pilot season, as well as lessons learned and areas for improvement.