Abstract

Evaluation of coverage for emergency care based on travel time
Track: Health and Human Services
Authors: Yoshinari Kimura, Kuninori Shiwaku, Tsuyoshi Hamano

In recent years, the deficiency of emergency care system has become a social issue by the decline of emergency hospitals due to the shortage of doctors in Japan. The aim of this study is to clarify the accessibilities to emergency hospitals using a travel time. We categorized areas within 3 min., 10 min., and 30 min. Our results showed that residents were surprisingly forced to take longer transportation time after the closure of the City Hospital Emergency Unit. Specifically, over 70% of resident need the time over 30 min to get emergency care (before closing unit, it estimated around 15%). Our study indicated that not only the discussion of healthcare resources but also the consideration of accessibilities to emergency hospitals in a region is important for the planning of health and medical service.