Integration of Location-Allocation and Accessibility Models in GIS to Improve Urban Planning for Health Services in Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In this study, accessibility and location-allocation models have been integrated into GIS to improve spatial planning and environmental sustainability of health services in Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah. This integration provides a planning framework in order to check the efficiency of the spatial allocation of health services and to generate alternatives either by proposing an active service or to improve an existing one. To achieve these objectives, the accessibility to the service area was analyzed within the analysis of health services networks, which are divided into eight types: public hospitals, specialized hospitals, health units, healthcare centers, infirmaries, clinic complexes, the Red Crescent Center, and ambulance facilities, with time intervals of (5 minutes-10 minutes-15 minutes) to access coverage ranges, and the location-allocation model was used based on the maximum coverage model within a response time not exceeding 15 minutes, The results of the study revealed the poor distribution of health services Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah suffers from weak accessibility to health services coverage areas and is unable to meet the needs of its population at present. The current need for health services reached twenty-four locations, including two public hospitals, three specialized hospitals, two health centers, three ambulance facilities, four infirmaries, three clinic complexes, four health units, and three Red Crescent centers.

Use of 2SFCA Method to Identify and Analyze Spatial Access Disparities to Healthcare in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

“…It seems logical that government institutions or even the private sector focus on allocating healthcare services in densely populated areas in order to provide access to the majority of the population. For instance, it was found that the population of the central districts in Al-Madinah, Saudi Arabia can easily access health services with the least distance and fastest time because of the high spatial concentration of these services at the level of central districts [69]. Moreover, according to Luo et al [18], the central urban areas of Wuhan have a higher or the highest level of medical accessibility that is attributed to the spatial concentration for most population and medical services in these areas.…”

Assessment of primary healthcare accessibility and inequality in north-eastern Kazakhstan

“…The results of application of location/allocation models, presented in Table 3 and Figures The same approach has been used to improve access to healthcare in Saudi Arabia (Abdelkarim, 2019;El Karim and Awawdeh, 2020). In general, location/allocation problems (p-median, maximum covering location problem), E2SFCA A i variance reduction, and their combination can be used to achieve spatial optimization towards a balance of efficiency and equality (Wang, 2020).…”

Modelling Accessibility to Primary Healthcare Facilities in Argungu LGA: Using Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MSGWR) Approach

“…The relationships between health, place and space including analyses of geographical patterns of healthcare access, monitoring, and intervention planning is well understood (Foley, Charlton, & Fotheringham, 2009;Shen & Tao, 2022). A framework for examining the use of health services and producing alternatives, either to suggest an efficient service or to improve health services, is provided by the integration of location-allocation and accessibility models (Abdelkarim, 2019). The goal of facility location decisions, also known as location-allocation problems, was to optimize the location of facilities to reduce cost and distance from demand and supply regions (Cooper, 1963).…”