Analysis of the geographic coverage of public hospital beds in Chile

Abstract

Currently it is possible to observe various problems in our country associated with access to the hospital system, which could be largely due to the location or territorial location of the population, by virtue of this, there is an interest in knowing if public hospital care depends to a great extent on where one lives in Chile. A cross-sectional study is carried out using the Hospital Discharge Statistical Report (years 2015 to 2019), selecting the 177 public hospitals that provide care for more than one of the following pathologies: Tumors, Diseases of the circulatory system, respiratory system, digestive and genitourinary system. Total hospital discharges were classified into three levels of geographic coverage based on the patient's place of residence: local, adjacent, and non-adjacent. The analysis database comprised of Discharges, Beds, ICU Beds, ICU Beds, Coverage 1, Coverage 2, and Coverage 3 was grouped using the K-Means method. It was possible to identify 5 classes that explain different levels of variability in the geographical coverage of a hospital, these being called: very low, medium low, medium, high and very high. The methodology used in this study, it was possible to obtain the result that there are patients better located in the territory and that, therefore, they have more expeditious access to take advantage of the supply of hospital beds based on their needs or preferences.