Clinicians are acutely aware of how a lack of access to electricity can undermine their patients’ health. I have treated people with asthma and emphysema who went days without medical devices such as nebulizers and oxygen machines because their power was turned off. I have seen patients suffer life-threatening hypothermia and heatstroke from not being able to afford heating and air conditioning.

A March survey found that 1 in 5 U.S. households couldn’t pay at least one energy bill in the previous 12 months, at a rate that’s increasing. Though government programs exist to help make these costs more affordable, many people are not eligible or even aware of them.

This is why Anna Goldman, a primary-care physician at Boston Medical Center, created a program that “prescribes” energy bill assistance to patients in need. As she explained, helping people afford their power is essential to keeping them healthy — both in allowing them to use their medical devices and ensuring that they don’t forgo basic life necessities.

“People are often substituting,” she said. “They’ll pay their utility bills over other things like medications and food sometimes, because they can’t live in their house without electricity.”

Goldman, who is also involved in BMC’s pioneering work to address food insecurity that I wrote about in a previous column, came up with this program after reading about a provision in the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act that funded projects to address climate change in economically challenged communities. She approached the then-head of hospital facilities, Robert Biggio, and proposed that they look into using the law to fund a solar array that reduces the hospital’s carbon footprint while producing savings that can go directly to covering patients’ utility costs.

Goldman had expected resistance, but Biggio immediately saw value and became an enthusiastic partner. Within a year, BMC installed a 365-kilowatt solar array on the roof of its administration building, with the help of the IRA. The money saved is now being “prescribed” to a small group of patients who have serious medical conditions and need energy assistance.

The pilot has the capacity to serve about 80 families. Each will receive approximately $600 in savings per year, or about $50 per month off their utility bill. More families might be able to be served in the future; BMC has asked local businesses with existing solar arrays to contribute renewable energy credits that can be “prescribed” to more patients in need.

This program is in its early stages, having just been launched in September. The number of patients it can serve is small. Still, I think it deserves praise because of its unique approach to solving two complex problems: illness and climate change. It is also a testament to how a good idea can become a reality when committed people are driving it forward.

This gets at the reason health-care professionals enter their field: to relieve suffering and improve well-being. “We see poverty alleviation as one of the most fundamental ways that you can improve someone’s health,” Goldman said. Doing that while also addressing the climate crisis is a goal more hospitals should strive toward.