Evaluation of Coverage for Emergence Medical Services in Shimane Prefecture Using Geographic Information System

Abstract

  Recently, the deficiency of emergency care system has become a social issue by the decline in the number of emergency hospitals due to the shortage of doctors in Japanese rural communities. Although the number and distribution of doctors were taken into account when secondary-medical care areas were designated, real transportation time required to reach the emergency hospitals has not been considered enough. The main objective of this study was to clarify the characteristics of accessibilities to emergency hospitals by secondary-medical care sectors in Shimane Prefecture, excluding islands, using a Geographical Information System. We categorized areas within 3 min., 10 min., and 30 min. transportation time to evaluate the accessibility to emergency hospitals by calculating the population of each area. The western areas of Shimane such as Ooda, Masuda and Hamada had a higher proportion of residents with over 30 minutes of transportation time than the eastern parts. This result indicated that there was a disparity in terms of accessibility to emergency hospitals between the eastern and western parts of Shimane Prefecture. Furthermore, we estimated that residents in the Ooda area were forced to take longer transportation time after the closure of the Ooda City Hospital emergency unit. Our study suggested that not only the discussion of healthcare resources but also the consideration of accessibilities to emergency hospitals in a region was important for the planning of health and medical service.