Several U.S. colleges and universities have also announced their intent to shift their energy investment strategies away from the large fossil-fuel companies. That in turn is putting pressure on university-affiliated hospitals and academic medical centers. In addition, several religious organizations and churches have pledged to remove fossil fuels from investment portfolios. But faith-based healthcare organizations have not taken a position.

Some observers predict more healthcare organizations will move to align their investment practices with their mission of improving the health of their communities. “Over the next three to four months, we will start to see the first hospitals at least freeze or divest” assets from fossil-fuel companies, said Gary Cohen, president of not-for-profit Health Care Without Harm, which works with hospitals on environmental issues. “Because of healthcare's mission, they should not be investing in technology that actually contributes to the biggest public health crisis of our time.”

Cohen said his group is in discussions with several providers on the issue, but he could not disclose which organizations are considering divesting.

Representatives of the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and Healthcare Financial Management Association all said their organizations do not track or have a position on fossil-fuel company divestment. The Catholic Health Association said it “supports socially responsible investing,” but takes its lead from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, which has said divestment is only one approach to social and environmental investing.

One concern for hospitals in considering divesting from fossil-fuel producers is that such a move might draw uncomfortable attention to the fact that hospitals are among the heaviest users of carbon fuels in their communities, and many operate their own power plants.

“In terms of getting off fossil fuels altogether, that would take a huge investment,” said Dan Doyle, chairman of Grumman/Butkus Associates, an engineering firm in Evanston, Ill., that works with providers on energy audits. “And the feasibility of doing that, especially in some of the urban campuses, is not really realistic.”

Whether it's the right thing to do for patients and the planet, dumping the stocks of companies such as BP, ExxonMobil Corp., Peabody Energy Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell would hardly be an easy decision financially for healthcare providers. Energy stocks have been consistently solid performers. And investment income has helped hospital systems weather slumping patient volumes and reimbursement cuts.

But there is some precedent. If disinvesting in fossil-fuel companies gains momentum, it would be similar to the movement for healthcare providers and other institutional investors to pull out of tobacco stocks. The medical profession first had a public impact on tobacco use 50 years ago when U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry warned that smoking caused lung cancer. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and Yale-New Haven (Conn.) Hospital were among the first healthcare organizations in the early 1990s to divest from tobacco, saying it didn't fit with their values. Several other hospitals, including many in Maine, later followed suit.