Hospital location-allocation in Shiraz using Geographical Information System (GIS)

Abstract

Background: Hospitals are one of the most important health facilities in every society. Therefore, these facilities should be located in a rational manner. The present study aims to 1) select optimal locations for establishing new hospitals in Shiraz and 2) assess the location of the existing hospitals in Shiraz using the geographical information system (GIS). Methods: At first, the hospital location allocation criteria were identified through reviewing the literature. Then, the criteria were entered into a questionnaire, which was completed by experts based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Afterwards, spatial raster layers of all the criteria were created in the Arc GIS 10.3 software. Then, in order to select optimal locations for hospitals, weights of the criteria were calculated based on AHP in Arc GIS and the weights were exerted on the relevant spatial created layers. Combination of the layers was presented on a map. After evaluating the 33 existing hospitals' locations based on the map, the areas located in standard hospital service areas (1500 m) were erased from the map in order to exclude the served areas. Results: The results revealed that 'proximity to the main roads' was the most important criterion amongst the whole applied criteria for selecting hospital location. This study also presented 15 land parcels, located in northern part of the city, as the best lands for constructing new hospitals. Besides, according the applied criteria in this study, none of the 33 existing hospitals were located in the appropriate locations. Conclusions: Considering the obtained pattern of the existing hospitals' locations, in most of the cases, the existing location is not good and the future hospitals must be located in more appropriate locations. The results of this study can be useful for health policymakers to select the most suitable locations for constructing new hospitals in future.

Comparison of GIS-based AHP and fuzzy AHP methods for hospital site selection: a case study for Prayagraj City, India

“…Critical factors that affect the hospital sites are identified through literature review. These factors are population density, land cost, proximity to road, proximity to railway, pollution and distance to other hospital (Dehe & Bamford, 2015;Dell'Ovo et al, 2018;Oppio et al, 2016;Rahimi et al, 2017;Senvar et al, 2016;Vahidnia et al, 2009). In addition to the selection of influential criteria, there is a need to know their relation to each other as well as their impact on overall site suitability.…”

Urban Growth and Urban Need to Fair Distribution of Healthcare Service, Case Study: Shiraz Metropolitan

“…Now it is not economically cost-effective to transfer current hospitals to other locations. Since the process of allocation of location has a large effect on increasing accessibility, reducing costs and launching various activities, this process is considered as one of the most important and effective executive projects [10][11]. The total criteria of current study were revised, scored and prioritized by experts in the city of Shiraz.…”

Hospital Location Selection: A Systematic Literature Review on Methodologies and Applications

“…e usage of AHP and GIS in hospital location selection problems stems from their advantages and integration compatibility. A GIS is a visual tool that provides convenience in understanding the criteria of the potential location such as geographic, geological, and distance to central points [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. It also includes many useful maps with various layers.…”