Spatial accessibility and equality of public medical facilities in rural areas based on the improved 3SFCA: A case of Haikou City

Abstract

Allocation of public medical facilities affects the health and well-being of urban and rural residents, therefore a scientific and accurate estimation of equal accessibility of public medical facilities in rural areas is of great significance. In rural areas, the population is scattered and the scale of settlement is small, and the medical care demand of residents is different from that of urban residents. The 2-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) and 3-step floating catchment area (3SFCA) algorithms are unable to accurately reflect the pattern of population distribution in rural areas, the characteristics of medical care-related travels, and residents' preference for higherlevel medical institutions. Therefore, the 3SFCA method is not effective in evaluating the accessibility of medical facilities in rural areas. This study improved the 3SFCA algorithm from three aspects-selecting the distance attenuation function according to the travel pattern of the rural residents in Haikou City, gridding the study area into population demand points, and considering the attraction of medical institutions of different levels to residents. Then the methodological framework for evaluating the accessibility and spatial equality of public medical facilities in rural areas was established, and an empirical analysis of Haikou City was conducted.The results show that: 1) The improved 3SFCA algorithm can accurately evaluate spatial accessibility at a finer grid, and the established rural medical facility accessibility and spatial equality evaluation model is more objective. 2) The accessibility of public medical facilities in the rural areas of Haikou City is poor, and the spatial differences are obvious. The high-value areas are distributed in the east of the study area, such as Sanjiang, Yunlong, and Jiazi towns, and the low-value areas are mainly concentrated in the west of the study area. 3) The spatial equality of the allocation of public medical facilities in the rural areas of Haikou City is also poor. A small number of areas of high and medium-high equality level are located in the low-and medium-density areas, while the areas of low and very low spatial equality level cover a large number of high-density areas, and the spatial equality of medical resource allocation urgently needs to be improved.

The accessibility analysis of multiple public facilities in the central urban areas based on multi‐transportation modes: A study in Chengdu

“…3SFCA only explores the accessibility of the same radius demand point at the same level, so as to make the accessibility result more reasonable. Referring to previous studies (Zhang, Lin, et al., 2022) whilst considering the research area, in this article the search radiuses of public facilities with grade weights of 3, 2, and 1 in driving, public transport, and cycling modes are set to 45, 30, and 15 min, respectively, and in walking mode to 30, 20 and 10 min respectively. The accessibility of multi‐transportation mode. …”

Spatial analysis of Haikou third-level first-class hospitals based on geographic information system

“…97.2% of the areas are in public medical facilities, and the accessibility is lower than the average level of the whole region [5]. Especially in high population density areas, the supply of medical resources is very limited, and the problem of a lack of public medical services is very serious [5]. Taking Haikou as an example, this paper will use road analysis and spatial analysis through GIS software to optimize the spatial layout of hospitals based on the existing third-level first-class general hospitals in Haikou, primarily studying the impact of traffic distribution and population density distribution on hospital site selection.…”

“…It is the political, economic, scientific, technological, and cultural center and the largest transportation hub in Hainan Province [4]. Currently, the accessibility of public medical facilities in rural areas of Haikou City is low as a whole, and the spatial difference is obvious [5]. 97.2% of the areas are in public medical facilities, and the accessibility is lower than the average level of the whole region [5].…”

“…Currently, the accessibility of public medical facilities in rural areas of Haikou City is low as a whole, and the spatial difference is obvious [5]. 97.2% of the areas are in public medical facilities, and the accessibility is lower than the average level of the whole region [5]. Especially in high population density areas, the supply of medical resources is very limited, and the problem of a lack of public medical services is very serious [5].…”

Measuring and optimizing the spatial accessibility of primary health care in remote and rural areas: a case study of Liannan Yao Autonomous County in China

“…The assessment of healthcare service accessibility involves analysing the behavioral decisions made by individuals within spatial facility contexts, specifically the relationship between demand points and supply points. Currently, the common methods for evaluating accessibility include the nearest distance method [11,12], the two-step floating catchment area method (2SFCA) [13][14][15], and the gravity potential model method [16][17][18], with the 2SFCA method being the most prevalent [1,19]. The 2SFCA method was initially proposed by Radke et al [12] and was further refined and formally named by Luo et al [13].…”