2020 Volume 85 Issue 769 Pages 637-646
Public service facilities play a vital role in meeting people’s growing material and cultural needs and improving the quality of life allround. The rational allocation of public service facilities is an important planning and layout goal. However, the contradiction between the growing demand for public services and the short supply of public services in urban areas is becoming more prominent. The intensification of metropolitan problems, such as urban hollowing, the adequacy of public service facilities, and the population balance, are getting more attention. Medical facilities are important for ensuring normal and orderly urban functioning. However, there is a shortage of medical facilities, and the irrational distribution of medical resources caused by the irrationality of the layout of medical institutions is affecting the quality of healthcare provision. Furthermore, in recent years, due to problems with facilities and management, medical services provision has become more restricted, and greater attention is being paid to the appropriate placement of hospitals and clinics. The conclusions of this study can be summarized in two points:
1) In previous studies using the 2SFCA estimation model, only the distribution of population and distance were used as explanatory variables, resulting in a large difference between the estimated value and the actual value. Therefore, this study conducted a statistical analysis of the hospital attributes according to their number of beds and the number of medical treatment specialties, which are with their most significant attributes. Furthermore, by comparing the estimated value with the actual value, the accuracy of the estimated result was improved over the conventional model, and the features and the influence of medical treatment specialties were clarified by introducing the explanatory variable of hospital attributes. As a limitation of this research, it does not directly take into account the operational elements such as letters of introduction.
2) In this study, we developed a model that estimates the number of patients for each diagnostic group by considering the locations and attributes of hospitals. We then conducted a case study of 52 general hospitals located in Fukuoka City. We were able to grasp the supply and demand balance for each region. In other words, in the future relocation of medical facilities, the arrangement of general hospitals and specialized hospitals should be considered, not only in terms of hospital location and the distances between hospitals but also the supply and demand balance for each diagnostic group. Moreover, the 2SFCA model developed in this study will be a useful tool for developing hospital facilities in the future, in accordance with the reorganization of city planning, changes in population distribution, and traffic planning.
