Hospital-system functionality quantification based on supply–demand relationship under earthquake

Abstract

The hospital system is one of the most critical systems in the city and plays an irreplaceable role in the whole process of earthquake disasters. This paper presents a method that considers the medical supply–demand relationship to quantify the functionality and functional loss of a hospital system under earthquake conditions, which is different from the current quantitative method that only considers internal factors of the hospital system. This method provides a “finest granularity” method for the division of quantitative evaluation units of hospital system functionality based on GIS overlay. Secondly, the functionality of the hospital system considering the medical supply–demand relationship and the quantitative metric, substitution capacity of medical resources (SCMR), is constructed. Then, we propose a quantification method of SCMR by combining the spatial and network analysis methods. Finally, a hospital system in eastern China is considered as an illustrative example. The impact of changes in the medical supply and demand at different times of the day on the hospital system functionality is analyzed. The results show that the medical supply and demand can impact hospital system functionality. The loss of medical supply causes a decline of hospital system functionality, while changes in the spatial aggregation of medical demand positively affect the loss of hospital system functionality. This paper can use the proposed method to quantify the hospital system functionality and reflect the balance of the medical supply–demand relationship before and after the earthquake. It can help decision-maker develop scientific post-earthquake emergency plans and enhance hospital system resilience.