Geospatial assessment of physical accessibility of healthcare and agent-based modeling for system efficacy

• Published in: GeoJournal 2020-06, Vol.85 (3), p.665-680
• Main Authors: Munir, Bilal Ahmad, Hafeez, Sidrah, Rashid, Sajid, Iqbal, Rabia, Javed, Muhammad Asif
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Access; Accessibility; Agent-based models; Catchment area; Catchment areas; Computer applications; Effectiveness; Efficacy; Environmental Management; Equity; Geography; Health care; Human Geography; Modelling; New sites; Programming languages; Roads; Rural areas; Rural communities; Rural roads; Social organization; Social Sciences; Spatial analysis; Transportation; Travel; Travel time; Urban areas
• ISSN: 0343-2521; 1572-9893
• DOI: 10.1007/s10708-019-09987-z

“Healthcare for all” is integral to achieve social equity. The geographical network of point of health care (POHC) is often limited by connectivity, accessibility and equity issues in developing areas. Matured spatial analysis techniques make ease in the identification of gaps and help to improve the healthcare system. This study sought to analyze inadequacy and equity issues in physical accessibility of POHC system in a developing area, Muzaffargarh, Pakistan by data variables representing the aggregated population, road network, travel time and transportation mode using network analyst in ArcGIS. Potential service catchment areas are delineated for a geographic network of existing POHCs’ at 5, 10, and 15 min of travel time. Further Agent-Based Model (ABM), a python script-based program in the ArcGIS environment, as the computational method is used for the location-allocation of new POHC to suggest improvements in the efficacy of the existing healthcare system. The proposed ABM approach has improved the overall efficacy of the system by identifying 13 new sites for POHC. Urban areas (zone 3, 5) are observed to have large service catchment and high accessibility for the community due to an efficient road network. However, rural areas (zone 1, 2, and 4) are identified as weak accessibility regions due to the poor road network and inadequate distribution of existing POHCs.