Core Concepts
The author developed geoprocessing tools to measure spatial accessibility of health services, revealing disparities in access to hemodialysis services.
Abstract
The study focuses on developing geoprocessing tools for spatial accessibility analysis in healthcare. It includes a case study on hemodialysis service accessibility in Tennessee, highlighting disparities between urban and rural areas. The tools offer a comprehensive approach to measuring health care access, empowering stakeholders to address distribution challenges effectively.
Stats
"For each facility location (j), identify all demand locations (k) that fall within a specified catchment area (d0) from the facility."
"In this study, we will measure the accessibility score using the 4 developed tools for the age-adjusted demand population in census tracts of the state of Tennessee."
"The resulting shapefile includes ID and capacity (number of machines) fields imported to ArcGIS Pro software."
"To have a better proxy of target demand, we adjusted the total population with the age distribution of each census tract."
"The resulting accessibility index for each tool was symbolized in a geographical map using natural break classification."
"Urban areas generally exhibited higher accessibility scores compared to rural areas."
"Interpreting the results from the E2SFCA tool is not straightforward due to its weighted measurement approach."
"Areas represented by white should be prioritized for informed resource allocation efforts."
"The E2SFCA02 tool stands out as a powerful option as it considers both distance decay and uses travel time catchments."