Spatial Accessibility to Hospitals Based on Web Mapping API: An Empirical Study in Kaifeng, China

Abstract

The accessibility of hospital facilities is of great importance not only for maintaining social stability, but also for protecting the basic human right to health care. Traditional accessibility research often lacks consideration of the dynamic changes in transport costs and does not reflect the actual travel time of urban residents, which is critical to time-sensitive hospital services. To avoid these defects, this study considered the city of Kaifeng, China, as an empirical case, and directly acquired travel time data for two travel modes to the hospital in different time periods through web mapping API (Application Program Interface). Further, based on travel time calculations, we compared five baseline indicators. For the last indicator, we used the optimal weighted accessibility model to measure hospital accessibility for each residential area. The study discovered significant differences in the frequency and spatial distribution of hospital accessibility using public transit and self-driving modes of transportation. In addition, there is an imbalance between accessibility travel times in the study area and the number of arrivals at hospitals. In particular, different modes of transportation and different travel periods also have a certain impact on accessibility of medical treatment. The research results shed new light on the accessibility of urban public facilities and provide a scientific basis with which local governments can optimize the spatial structure of hospital resources.

Spatial Difference and Equity Analysis for Accessibility to Three-Level Medical Services Based on Actual Medical Behavior in Shaanxi, China

“…The value of was between 1 and 2. According to results of other papers, we considered the impact of the attractiveness of secondary medical service to be greater than the effect of distance [ 28 , 29 ], and distance attenuation is low, so the value of was set to 1; d 0 is the space-time threshold. Because the study area is a provincial area with a large spatial range, it is more difficult for residents in remote areas to obtain medical resources than it is for residents in urban areas.…”

Modeling relationships between the network distance and travel time dynamics for assessing equity of accessibility to urban parks

“…Results indicated that geo-located data can provide more accurate and realistic information than static or partially dynamic analyses. Zheng et al (2019) considered the dynamic changes in transport costs to hospital services using public transit and self-driving modes of transportation. Instant TTs to access hospital services were considered at the peak and off-peak traffic hours of the day.…”

Understanding Smart City—A Data-Driven Literature Review

“…Health and social services are attributed to the government component as government agencies are in most countries accountable for those services. The accessibility of hospitals is of particularly high importance that requires an extensive data driven analysis to consider dynamic changes in transport costs and travel time in order to provide universal access to hospital services for the whole population [226].…”