THE EVALUATION OF ACCESSIBILITY TO HOSPITAL INFRASTRUCTURE AT REGIONAL SCALE BY USING GIS SPACE ANALYSIS MODELS: THE NORTH-WEST REGION, ROMANIA
Keywords:
hospitals, accessibility, GIS, spatial analysis, regional approach.Abstract
The Evaluation of Accessibility to Hospital Infrastructure at Regional Scale by Using GIS Space Analysis Models: the North-West Region, Romania. Easy access of the population to hospital infrastructure represents one of the main preoccupations of local and national authorities in the attempt to increase the degree of deliverance of quality medical services. The analysis of territorial distribution of various hospital categories- city, clinical, teaching, emergency hospitals- has revealed some areas of deficit in what regards the availability of various types of medical assistance. Identifying the areas of deficit from the point of view of accessibility to hospital infrastructure is carried out by means of a GIS model of space analysis (Cost Surface Modeling type) based on the calculation of access time from any location in the territory to the nearest hospital taking into consideration the vector databases (access ways, hospitals etc.), assignment (speed of motion on access ways, hospital type) and raster (access time).
References
Apparicio, Ph., Abdelmajid, M., Riva, M., Shearmur, R. (2008), Comparing alternative approaches to measuring the geographical accessibility of urban health services: Distance types and aggregation-error issues, International Journal of Health Geographics, 7, 7, pp. 1 – 13.
Bilaşco, Şt. (2008), Implementarea GIS în modelarea viiturilor de versant, Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă, Cluj-Napoca, 194 p.
Christie, S., Fone, D. (2003), Equity of access to tertiary hospitals in Wales: a travel time analysis, Journal of Public Health Medicine, 25, 4, p. 344-350.
Cocean, P. (coordinator) (2004), Planul de Amenajare a Teritoriului Regiunii de Nord-Vest (PATR) – Coordonate majore, Presa Universitară Clujeană, Cluj-Napoca, 271 p.
Comber, A. J., Brunsdon, C, Radburn, R. (2011), A spatial analysis of variations in health access: linking geography, socio-economic status and access perceptions, International Journal of Health Geographics, 10, 44, pp. 44 – 54.
Drobne, S., Bogataj, M., Paliska, D., Fabjan, D. (2005), Will the Future Motorway Network Improve the Accessibility to Administrative Centres in Slovenia? in: L. Zadnik Stirn, S. Drobne (eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Operational Research in Slovenia. Slovenian Society Informatika (SDI), SOR, Ljubljana, p. 213-218.
Drobne, S. (2005), Do Administrative Boundaries fit Accessibility Fields in Slovenia? in: D. Cygas, K.D. Fröhner (eds.). Environmental Engineering, the 6th International Conference, Selected papers. University Press Technika, Vilnius, p. 537-542.
Drobne, S. (2003), Modelling accessibility fields in Slovene municipalities, in L. Zadnik Sirn, M. Bastič, S. Drobne (eds.), Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Operational Research in Slovenia. Slovenian Society Informatika (SDI), SOR, Ljubljana, pp. 89-96.
Fone, D. L.,Christie, S., Lester, N. (2006), Comparison of perceived and modelled geographical access to accident and emergency departments: a cross-sectional analysis from the Caerphilly Health and Social Needs Study, International Journal of Health Geographics, 5, 16, pp. 16-25.
Gu, W., Wang, X., McGregor, S.E. (2010), Optimization of preventive health care facility locations, International Journal of Health Geographics 9, p. 17.
Guagliardo, M. F. (2004), Spatial accesisibility of primary care: concepts, methods and challenges, International Journal of Health Geographics, 3, 3, pp. 273 – 283.
Higgs, G. (2004), A literature review of the use of GIS-based measures of acces to health care services, , Health Services & Outcomes Research Methodology, 5, 19, pp. 119 – 139.
Julião, R. P. (1999), Measuring Accessibility Using GIS, in GeoComputation Proceedings, http://www.geovista.psu.edu/sites/geocomp99/Gc99/010/gc_010.htm (accessed: 18.04.2013).
Kalogirou, S., Foley, R. (2006), Health, place and Hanly: Modelling accessibility to hospitals in Ireland, Irish Geography, 39, 1, p. 52-68.
Munoz, U.H., Källestål, C. (2012), Geographical accessibility and spatial coverage modeling of primary health care network in the Western Province of Rwanda, International Journal of Health Geographics, 11:40, pp. 40 – 50.
Ohta, K., Kobashi,G., Takano,S., Kagaya,S., Yamada, H., Minakami, H., Yamamura, E. (2007), Analysis of the geographical accessibility of neurosurgical emergency hospitals in Sapporo city using GIS and AHP, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 21, 6, pp. 687 – 698.
Patel, A.B., Waters, N.W., Ghali, W.A. (2007), Determining geographic areas and populations with timely access to cardiac catheterization facilities for acute myocardial infarction care in Alberta, Canada, International Journal of Health Geographics, 6, 47, p. 12.
Pedigo, A.S., Odoi, A. (2010), Investigation of Disparities in Geographic Accessibility to Emergency Stroke and Myocardial Infarction Care in East Tennessee Using Geographic Information Systems and Network Analysis, Annals of Epidemiology, 20, 12, p. 924-930.
Salze, P., Banos, A., Oppert, J-M., Charreiere, H., Casey R., Simon, C., Chaix, B., Badarotti, D., Weber, C. (2011), Estimating spatial accessibility to facilities on the regional scale: an extended commuting-based interaction potential model, International Journal of Health Geographics, 10, p. 2.
Sherman, J. E., Spencer, J., Preisser, J.S., Gesler, W. M., Arcury, T. A. (2005), A suite of methods for representing activity space in a healthcareaccessibility study, International Journal of Health Geographics, 1, 21, pp.24 – 46.
Simões, P.P., Almeida R.M.V.R (2011), Geographic accessibility to obstetric care and maternal mortality in a large metropolitan area of Brazil, International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 112, p. 25-29.
Soitu Daniela, Rebeleanu Adina, Oprea, L. (2013), Social and medical public policies between “vulnerabilities” and “risks”, Revista Romana de Bioetica, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 123 – 133.
Tanke, M.A., Ikkersheim, D.E. (2012), A new approach to the tradeoff between quality and accessibility of health care, Health Policy, Elsevier, 105, p. 282-287.
Vlădescu, C., Astărăstoaie, V., Scîntee Silvia Gabriela (2010), A health system focused on citizen’s needs. Romania. Situation analysis (I), Revista Romana de Bioetica, vol 8, no. 2, pp.87 – 96.
Vlădescu, C., Astărăstoaie, V., Scîntee Silvia Gabriela (2010), A health system focused on citizen’s needs. Romania. Hospital services, primary health care and human resources. Solutions (III), Revista Romana de Bioetica, vol 8, no. 4, pp. 89 – 99.
Vlădescu, C., Astărăstoaie, V. (2012), Policy and politics of the Romanian health care reform, Revista Romana de Bioetica, vol. 10, no.1, pp.89 – 99.
***, Opinion barometer on health care services among the population of Romania, 2002, Centre for Health Policies and Services.
***, Romanian Government , Government Decree no. 345/2011 approving the 2011 Report of the Committee of Selection of hospitals with beds that cannot contract with health insurance houses and the list of these health units.
***, Romanian Government, Decree no. 303/2011 for approving the National Strategy for rationalization of hospitals.
***, Romanian Government, Law regarding reform in healthcare, no. 95/2006.
***, Romanian Government, Ministery of Health, 2008, Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Health 2008-2010.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2015 Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Geographia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
©Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai Geographia. Published by Babeș-Bolyai University.