Background: Recently, investments in the construction of medical resources have been increasing annually China, and consequently, the allocation of these resources has improved. However, the outbreak of covid-19 in 2020 highlights the problems in the distribution of medical institutions. After the occurrence of public health emergencies, the joint action of different levels of medical and health institutions can bring the role of urban medical and health system into full play. Therefore, after a global public health emergency, the study of medical institution distribution needs to be reconsidered.
Methods: With the continuous application and development of GIS, the application of GIS in civil planning is relatively mature, and research investigating distribution has been conducted in depth. Based on this foundation, this paper analyzes the factors impacting distribution, such as the transportation system, land use characteristics and personal factors, by a weighted spatial separation model of a representative city in a cold region in China.
Results: A weighted spatial separation model was built and applied to comprehensively consider several factors affecting accessibility, including the spatial coverage separation, the service areas separation, the road network separation, the population separation and the weather separation. To calculate the accessibility of medical institutions using a weighted spatial separation model, Harbin was chosen as a case study. The accessibility of medical institutions was analyzed.
Conclusions: The accessibility of medical institutions in this representative cold city in China was comparatively analyzed in this paper through theoretical research, software computations/simulations and model analysis based on the GIS paradigm. This study will help optimize the layout of medical institutions and improve medical equality.
Trial registration: An ethics review and approval for this study was not required according to the local legislation and institutional requirements.