The process involves determining the accessibility of healthcare services by considering both the supply of providers and the demand from populations within a defined geographic area. For instance, the calculation might involve summing the service capacity of physicians within a catchment area, then weighting this sum by a distance-decay function reflecting diminishing access as distance increases for potential patients.
Understanding the spatial relationship between healthcare resources and population needs provides a valuable tool for resource allocation, identifying underserved areas, and informing policy decisions. This approach offers a more nuanced understanding of healthcare access than simple provider-to-population ratios and has evolved from basic gravity models to more sophisticated methods accounting for competition and provider behavior.
