Examining the interplay between racial segregation patterns and access to hospital care

Abstract

Access to hospitals and especially intensive care units is an important issue given the current COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the interplay between the pattern of spatial separation of racial groups and the access by those groups to hospital services as measured by the number of beds. Differences between racial groups in the Chicago Area were investigated using two models that calculated supply and cost accessibility to hospital care using Huff-style probabilities. An additional two models focused on minimizing the unevenness in congestion for ICU beds at hospitals. Results suggest that with respect to hospital beds, there was not much difference between racial groups in terms of supply accessibility, but there were greater differences in the travel cost for accessing those services. This is due to the association between the centrality dimension of residential segregation and the central location of hospitals in the Chicago Area. Results also suggest that the goal of even congestion levels results in higher travel costs with the region.