English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Background  Spatial accessibility to healthcare facilities has drawn much attention in health geography. In China, central and local governments have aimed to develop a well-organized hierarchical system of healthcare facilities in recent years. However, few studies have focused on the measurement of healthcare accessibility in a hierarchical service delivery system, which is crucial for the assessment and implementation of such strategies.    Methods  Based on recent improvements in 2SFCA (two-step floating catchment area) method, this study aims to propose a Hierarchical 2SFCA (H2SFCA) method for measuring spatial accessibility to hierarchical facilities. The method considers the varied catchment area sizes, distance decay effects, and transport modes for facilities at various levels. Moreover, both the relative and absolute distance effects are incorporated into the accessibility measurement.    Results  The method is applied and tested in a case study of hierarchical healthcare facilities in Shenzhen, China. The results reveal that the general spatial accessibility to hierarchical healthcare facilities in Shenzhen is unevenly distributed and concentrated. The disparity of general accessibility is largely caused by the concentrated distribution of tertiary hospitals. For facilities at higher levels, average accessibility of demanders is higher, but there are also larger disparities in spatial accessibility. The comparison between H2SFCA and traditional methods reveals that traditional methods underestimate the spatial disparity of accessibility, which may lead to biased suggestions for policy making.    Conclusions  The results suggest that the supply of healthcare resources at primary facilities is far from sufficient. To improve the spatial equity in spatial accessibility to hierarchical healthcare facilities, various actions are needed at different levels. The proposed H2SFCA method contributes to the modelling of spatial accessibility to hierarchical healthcare facilities in China and similar environments where the referral system has not been well designed. It can also act as the foundation for developing more comprehensive measures in future studies.

international journal for equity in health

Hierarchical two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method: measuring the spatial accessibility to hierarchical healthcare facilities in Shenzhen, China