2009 Volume 21 Issue 2 Pages 115-135
Objectives: The benefits of health care services can be divided into two main groups. The first comprises substantial medical benefits derived from the provision of actual care. The second is an external effect that manifests as a sense of relief or peace of mind for residents living near medical facilities. The present study focuses on this second benefit and aims to estimate it statistically using regional data.
Methods/Design: As the data available are limited, the present study focused on the city of Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture. Open data from public land price announcements（Chika-Koji）were used to collect regional land price data, and geographical information systems（GIS）were used to collect data such as the characteristics of social infrastructure and accessibility of traffic. In addition, information on the regional medical system was collected from public data managed by the Office for the Promotion of Cooperation among Medical Institutions in Yokohama City. A total of 300 samples were included in the analysis. Based on the hedonic approach, a model was constructed to estimate land price with regard to various land characteristics as well as criteria such as the convenience of nearby social infrastructures, accessibility of public transportation and the current supply of regional medical services.
Results: A strong positive correlation between land price and the number of medical facilities within 1 km of any given point（p<0.01）and a negative correlation between land price and the distance of the nearest medical facility from any given point（p<0.01）were observed. The results also suggested that land price was raised marginally by increasing the number of nearby health care facilities. In contrast, land price tended to decrease when the distance to the nearest healthcare facility increased. The coefficients of external effect, which reflect residents’ sense of relief derived from the accessibility of health services, were greater than those for other important characteristics such as infrastructure or daily convenience.
Conclusion: In summary, health care facilities contribute to regional society not only by supplying health care services but also by providing peace of mind to neighborhood residents. This latter aspect of the benefits of health care facilities should be examined in more detail in the future.
