Minimizing Spatial Variability of Healthcare Spatial Accessibility—The Case of a Dengue Fever Outbreak

Hone-Jay Chu, Bo-Cheng Lin, Ming-Run Yu and Ta-Chien Chan
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Hone-Jay Chu: Department of Geomatics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City 700, Taiwan
Bo-Cheng Lin: Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei City 115, Taiwan
Ming-Run Yu: Department of Geomatics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City 700, Taiwan
Ta-Chien Chan: Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei City 115, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-11

Abstract: Outbreaks of infectious diseases or multi-casualty incidents have the potential to generate a large number of patients. It is a challenge for the healthcare system when demand for care suddenly surges. Traditionally, valuation of heath care spatial accessibility was based on static supply and demand information. In this study, we proposed an optimal model with the three-step floating catchment area (3SFCA) to account for the supply to minimize variability in spatial accessibility. We used empirical dengue fever outbreak data in Tainan City, Taiwan in 2015 to demonstrate the dynamic change in spatial accessibility based on the epidemic trend. The x and y coordinates of dengue-infected patients with precision loss were provided publicly by the Tainan City government, and were used as our model’s demand. The spatial accessibility of heath care during the dengue outbreak from August to October 2015 was analyzed spatially and temporally by producing accessibility maps, and conducting capacity change analysis. This study also utilized the particle swarm optimization (PSO) model to decrease the spatial variation in accessibility and shortage areas of healthcare resources as the epidemic went on. The proposed method in this study can help decision makers reallocate healthcare resources spatially when the ratios of demand and supply surge too quickly and form clusters in some locations.

Keywords: floating catchment area; particle swarm optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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