Analysis of the spatial range of service and accessibility of hospitals designated for coronavirus disease 2019 in Yunnan Province, China

Abstract

COVID-19 poses a major threat to global health care systems, and the recent surge in mortality rates confirms the importance of timely access to care. The capacity of medical service providers is reflected both in the spatial accessibility of medical institutions and in the spatial scope of their services. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the spatial scope of services and spatial accessibility of COVID-19-designated hospitals in Yunnan Province, China. Data are collected from multiple sources and included COVID-19 case data, road data, and data from designated hospitals for COVID-19 in Yunnan Province. The optimal spatial service range for designated hospitals is delineated using a weighted Voronoi diagram that takes into account the number of medical staff and the number of beds in the hospital. Traffic accessibility coefficients are introduced to analyze the spatial accessibility of COVID-19-designated hospitals, and the spatial accessibility of each designated hospital is visualized using the inverse distance weighting interpolation algorithm. The results show the following: (1) COVID-19 cases in Yunnan Province are concentrated in the central and northern regions. The largest single cells in the weighted Voronoi diagram are mainly Pu'er (59168 km²), Honghe (35569 km²), and Baoshan (46795 km²), and the time cost of attainting medical treatment is greater for residents in marginal areas. (2) Within the service space of designated hospitals, 90.24% of patients could obtain medical assistance within 2 h. Those in 52 (36.36%) counties within a municipal jurisdiction could obtain medical services within 2 h, and 76.47% of counties have above-average spatial accessibility. (3) Medical resources in Yunnan Province should be shifted toward the high-risk east-central region and the less spatially accessible in southern and western regions.

Keywords:

• Coronavirus disease 2019
• medical service spatial scope
• spatial accessibility
• Voronoi diagram

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41901336) and Yunnan Fundamental Research Projects (No. 202101AT070078).