Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for identifying spatial accessibility to health centers in Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia based on the drive-time analysis technique. A geo-database was created that includes the location of health centers, population distribution, and road networks. ArcGIS Network Analyst and overlay analyses were selected as the analysis tools for this paper. The results of the paper indicate that health centers that are located in the northern districts of Jeddah City have fewer registered patients. There are several areas of Jeddah City that have low accessibility to health centers because they fall outside the 30 min drive-time service area. These are located mainly in western, central, and northern city districts. Local health planners in Jeddah City can use the created application to allocate additional health centers in these less-served districts.
Highlights
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) play a major role in health care, surveillance of infectious diseases, and mapping and monitoring of the spatial and temporal distributions of vectors of infection, allowing researchers to study the relationships between spatial and temporal trends and risks, and between environmental factors and health, at all scales [1]
Once the created geo-database has been built by the presented study, the first issue was to gain a clear understanding about the existing condition regarding health center locations and their distribution in Jeddah City
In order to have a deeper understanding about the type and size of patients that use these health centers, GIS classification techniques were used to classify health centers using the collected data regarding the number of patients registered in each center
Summary
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) play a major role in health care, surveillance of infectious diseases, and mapping and monitoring of the spatial and temporal distributions of vectors of infection, allowing researchers to study the relationships between spatial and temporal trends and risks, and between environmental factors and health, at all scales [1]. Using GIS for the spatial representation of health issues helps professionals arrive at conclusions faster and reach better decisions related to deferent public health planning issues [2]. The medical research applications of GIS are numerous and include finding disease clusters and their possible causes, improving deployment for emergency services, and determining if an area is being served adequately by health services. Public and private sectors are reaching better decisions based on spatial data integration and GIS. Public health departments and public health policy and research organizations, hospitals, medical centers, and health insurance organizations are all examples of health sectors that benefit from applying GIS in their spatial decision-making process. Public health uses GIS for tracking child immunizations, conducting health policy research, and establishing service areas and districts
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