GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES IN EXAMINING THE HEALTHCARE RESOURCE DISPARITIES IN ALABAMA, LOUISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI

Geospatial technologies have been effectively applied in numerous studies examining health disparities. In order to reduce health disparities associated with access to quality healthcare, assessing currently available resources within a defined geographic area is necessary. This project focused on assessing and analyzing existing healthcare resources in the states of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

In order to achieve the project goals, the following steps were taken: (1) data acquisition from respective state health departments and licensure boards, (2) data preparation for geocoding, (3) geocoding, (4) database development, (5) mapping, and (6) analyses. More than 100,000 healthcare resource records are entered annually into the GIS database. An Oracle/ArcSDE database has been developed which is a spatially enabled relational database that provides efficient ways to query and extract desired data subsets based on area, resource type, and year. All healthcare resources have been mapped by county, Delta/non-Delta, and urban/rural boundaries.

Analyses for a number of resources and comparisons among different regions and spatial autocorrelation for community characteristics and healthcare resources have been conducted. Based on street networks, driving distances around study area hospitals were calculated showing more than 927,000 people living outside a 30-minute driving distance from a hospital. Results of our health resource gap analysis can assist policymakers prioritizing healthcare resource allocations and researchers linking health conditions and healthcare resources within specific geographic areas.