Assessing Spatial Accessibility to Medical Resources at the Community Level in Shenzhen, China

Lei Zhu, Shuang Zhong, Wei Tu, Jing Zheng, Shenjing He, Junzhe Bao and Cunrui Huang
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Lei Zhu: School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 74, Zhongshan 2nd Road, Guangzhou 510080, China
Shuang Zhong: Center for Chinese Public Administration Research, School of Government, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 135, Xingang Xi Road, Guangzhou 510275, China
Wei Tu: Department of Geology and Geography, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30460-8149, USA
Jing Zheng: Shenzhen Medical Information Center, No. 2210, North Renmin Road, Shenzhen 518001, China
Shenjing He: Department of Urban Planning and Design, 8/F Knowles Building, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR, China
Junzhe Bao: School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 74, Zhongshan 2nd Road, Guangzhou 510080, China
Cunrui Huang: School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, No. 74, Zhongshan 2nd Road, Guangzhou 510080, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: Spatial accessibility to medical resources is an integral component of universal health coverage. However, research evaluating the spatial accessibility of healthcare services at the community level in China remains limited. We assessed the community-level spatial access to beds, doctors, and nurses at general hospitals and identified the shortage areas in Shenzhen, one of the fastest growing cities in China. Based on hospital and population data from 2016, spatial accessibility was analyzed using several methods: shortest path analysis, Gini coefficient, and enhanced 2-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA). The study found that 99.9% of the residents in Shenzhen could get to the nearest general hospital within 30 min. Healthcare supply was much more equitable between populations than across communities in the city. E2SFCA scores showed that the communities with the best and worst hospital accessibility were found in the southwest and southeast of the city, respectively. State-owned public hospitals still dominated the medical resources supply market and there was a clear spatial accessibility disparity between private and public healthcare resources. The E2SFCA scores supplement more details about resource disparity over space than do crude provider-to-population ratios (PPR) and can help improve the efficiency of the distribution of medical resources.

Keywords: spatial accessibility; general hospital; medical resource; E2SFCA; Shenzhen (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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