In part two of our energy and healthcare series, we look at the infrastructure gaps that could hold back digital care. You can read part one here.
Healthcare transformation is a constant headline. It’s in government policy, news cycles, and innovation labs. It’s also the top priority influencing voting decisions for 90 per cent of engaged women we’ve surveyed across Canada.
But a key question remains: are we actually ready for it?
For many frontline workers, the promise of transformation meets a practical barrier: energy infrastructure that doesn’t always keep up. As hospitals shift to AI-powered diagnostics and digital systems, uninterrupted power isn’t a luxury. It’s a baseline requirement.
For frontline workers, the transformation process often means navigating the space between high-level policy goals and operational reality.
For example, digital systems and tools promise enhanced efficiency. But infrastructure gaps, like unreliable or limited energy systems, can affect how well transformation enables better patient care, says Anne Jordan, an RN and co-founder of Nurses For Sustainable Care (NFSC).
Jordan says that while nurses are ready to adapt to digital change, they often don’t know where or how to offer input, and they aren’t being asked to help shape how that change happens based on their day-to-day experience.
“We’re actively using digital tools and moving at a faster pace than ever before,” she says. “But for the frontline end user, there’s no operational place to tap into their ideas and ask, ‘Is this working?’”
These stories point to a national planning gap. If Canada is serious about healthcare transformation, then energy infrastructure needs to be part of the conversation. Being able to deliver quality care depends on reliable, distributed systems that work everywhere care happens.
Frontline voices offer first-hand insight into how infrastructure gaps can derail transformation. They see where systems break down long before policy does.
Without energy security, good patient care can’t be guaranteed
As hospitals adopt digital health platforms that incorporate artificial intelligence-powered diagnostics and expand telemedicine, uninterrupted, consistent power becomes even more non-negotiable, says Jordan.
“Healthcare has the best examples of what happens when you don’t have reliable energy grids,” she explains. “When you think about Uncle Bob on a ventilator, on breathing systems, we’re talking about seconds. You don’t have downtime.”
From robot-assisted surgical tools, to infusion systems that deliver fluid, medication, or nutrients directly into a patient’s bloodstream, the growing power needs of a digitized health system make energy security a frontline issue.
The pressure on energy systems is not unique to healthcare. As artificial intelligence scales across sectors, energy infrastructure is becoming the backbone of all digital progress (an issue we have previously looked at).
But healthcare policy often exists in a silo that focuses on budgets or wait times, and not the real-world impacts of interrupted infrastructure in hospitals and clinics, says Jordan.
She suggests nurses can help bridge that divide, as trusted voices with frontline experience, who can offer valuable input to both policymakers and the public how energy insecurity could limit patient care and even cost patient lives.
Closing the feedback gap in healthcare transformation policy
Nurses and other healthcare workers often have practical workarounds and ideas drawn from real-time experience that can help improve service delivery and streamline healthcare processes as they undergo major digital transformation, says Jordan.
“In this time of change, there’s a lot of hunkering down, trying to survive the changes that we are in the middle of. And nurses are not engaged in conversations that are crucial to this stage that we’re in.”
To enable these conversations, she says far more than a one-off consultation is needed.
A system of continuous, ongoing feedback between frontline providers and policymakers to discuss policy input and operational insight is needed to bridge the infrastructure gap in healthcare.
As is fulsome public debate on the complex interplay between healthcare and other key, cross-sector drivers of transformation, like infrastructure planning and energy security.
Nurses are not just caregivers. They are connectors between policy and reality, positioned to show what resilience looks like in practice, says Jordan.
“We’re not looking to be adversarial,” but rather want to inspire broad debate that will lead to the successful and ongoing transformation of the healthcare sector and the robust energy system we’ll need to get there.