Abstracts by keywords: health care in rural regions; provision planning; spatial healthcare research; accessibility; spatial interaction models; big spatial data; geographic information systems; optimization
In retail research, spatial interaction models have been used for decades to estimate and analyze customer inflows, including in the area of local supply in the food trade, which is closely related to healthcare (Wieland 2011, 2015a). These models have now also found their way into regional health services research (Bauer/Groneberg 2016, Fülop et al. 2011, Jia et al. 2015). Before the exemplary application of spatial interaction models takes place, some general considerations must first be made about the usefulness of their use.
04.06.2018
The regional disparities in the provision of health services have come to the fore, particularly against the background of the discussion about demographic change. The focus here is primarily on existing and expected supply bottlenecks in rural areas (Greß/Stegmüller 2011, Lessing/Herr 2015, Ried 2016). The system of statutory health needs planning has been criticized in the past, particularly with regard to its spatial control function, with the planning areas considered too large for both analysis and planning purposes and the failure to take into account the actual accessibility of health facilities (Greß/Stegmüller 2011: 22ff.). In the course of the reform of demand planning in 2013, this problem was already addressed through smaller-scale planning levels and the possibility of regional adjustments to demand (KBV 2013, Schulz et al. 2015).