Background The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, has infected millions of people and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. While COVID-19 has overwhelmed healthcare resources (e.g., healthcare personnel, testing resources, hospital beds, and ventilators) in a number of countries, limited research has been conducted to understand spatial accessibility of such resources. This study fills this gap by rapidly measuring the spatial accessibility of COVID-19 healthcare resources with a particular focus on Illinois, USA. Method The rapid measurement is achieved by resolving computational intensity of an enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method through a parallel computing strategy based on cyberGIS (cyber geographic information science and systems). The E2SFCA has two major steps. First, it calculates a bed-to-population ratio for each hospital location. Second, it sums these ratios for residential locations where hospital locations overlap. Results The comparison of the spatial accessibility measures for COVID-19 patients to those of population at risk identifies which geographic areas need additional healthcare resources to improve access. The results also help delineate the areas that may face a COVID-19-induced shortage of healthcare resources. The Chicagoland, particularly the southern Chicago, shows an additional need for resources. This study also identified vulnerable population residing in the areas with low spatial accessibility in Chicago. Conclusion Rapidly measuring spatial accessibility of healthcare resources provides an improved understanding of how well the healthcare infrastructure is equipped to save people’s lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are relevant for policymakers and public health practitioners to allocate existing healthcare resources or distribute new resources for maximum access to health services.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, has infected millions of people and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. While COVID-19 has overwhelmed healthcare resources (e.g., healthcare personnel, testing resources, hospital beds, and ventilators) in a number of countries, limited research has been conducted to understand spatial accessibility of such resources. This study fills this gap by rapidly measuring the spatial accessibility of COVID-19 healthcare resources with a particular focus on Illinois, USA. Specifically, the rapid measurement is achieved by resolving computational intensity of an enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method through a parallel computing strategy based on cyberGIS (cyber geographic information science and systems). The study compared the spatial accessibility measures for COVID-19 patients to those of general population, identifying which geographic areas need additional healthcare resources to improve access. The results also help delineate the areas that may face a COVID-19-induced shortage of healthcare resources caused by COVID-19. The Chicagoland, particularly the southern Chicago, shows an additional need for resources. Our findings are relevant for policymakers and public health practitioners to allocate existing healthcare resources or distribute new resources for maximum access to health services.. CC-BY 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review)

Context: Public Health 3.0 described the need for public health agencies and the public health workforce to transform and obtain new skills and approaches to address the social determinants of health (SDOH) through cross-sectoral partnerships and collective action. Objective: To assess the current state of local health departments' Public Health 3.0 alignment through interventions and initiatives documented in community health improvement plans (CHIPs). Method: We conducted a content analysis of Illinois CHIPs from July to November 2020. A coding framework aligned with Public Health 3.0 concepts was developed on the basis of constructs from the literature, faculty expertise, and preliminary reviews of the CHIPs. Two researchers deductively coded for health priorities and interventions in Microsoft Excel 2016 and calculated the number of CHIPs in which each code appeared. Results: Ninety CHIPs representing 98 counties across the state were analyzed; 2 CHIPs were excluded because of a lack of strategies. Our content analysis found that 13% (n = 12) of CHIPs had explicit priorities related to SDOH and 12% (n = 11) included interventions that addressed socioeconomic factors. Ten percent (n = 9) of CHIPs proposed multilevel multicomponent interventions. Eighty-nine percent (n = 80) of CHIPs included community-level interventions, and 53% (n = 48) of CHIPs included policy, systems, and environmental strategies focused on specific health content. The majority of CHIPs (96%; n = 86) had at least 1 partnership strategy. Thirty-two percent (n = 29) of CHIPs mentioned the use of an evidence-based strategy. Conclusions: Our content analysis found opportunities to improve Illinois public health agencies' Public Health 3.0 capacities and capability. Findings are limited to this data source and definitions of the Public Health 3.0 attributes, leaving room for practice and research opportunities to develop operational definitions of Public Health 3.0; capacity building to improve the public health workforce readiness; and research and evaluation to measure improvements.