An enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method for measuring spatial accessibility to primary care physicians

• Published in: Health & place Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 1100 - 1107
• Main Authors: Luo, Wei, Qi, Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2009
• Subjects: Access to health care; Accessibility; Catchment Area (Health); Catchment areas; Doctors; Geographical information systems; GIS; Gravity; Gravity model; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; Illinois; Measurement; Physicians, Family - supply & distribution; Primary care physician shortage; Primary Health Care; Shortages; Social Class; Spatial accessibility; Spatial analysis; Two-step floating catchment area; U.S.A; GIS; Gravity model; Primary care physician shortage; Two-step floating catchment area; Spatial accessibility
• ISSN: 1353-8292; 1873-2054
• DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2009.06.002

This paper presents an enhancement of the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method for measuring spatial accessibility, addressing the problem of uniform access within the catchment by applying weights to different travel time zones to account for distance decay. The enhancement is proved to be another special case of the gravity model. When applying this enhanced 2SFCA (E2SFCA) to measure the spatial access to primary care physicians in a study area in northern Illinois, we find that it reveals spatial accessibility pattern that is more consistent with intuition and delineates more spatially explicit health professional shortage areas. It is easy to implement in GIS and straightforward to interpret.