Measuring geospatial healthcare access to primary level facilities in mexico: A gis-based diagnosis analysis

Abstract

To describe a general overview of health services delivery in Mexico and geospatially analyze the current distribution and accessibility of Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities to con-tribute to new approaches to improve healthcare planning in Mexico. We performed a spatial analysis of official data to analyze current distances from health facilities to population, to determine the underserved areas of health services delivery in three selected states using a ranking of indica-tors. We estimated service area coverage of PHC facilities with road networks of three Mexican states (Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca). Our es-timations provide an overview of spatial access to healthcare of the Mexican population in Mexico’s three most impoverished states. We did not consid-er social security nor private providers. Geospatial access to health facilities is critical to achieving PHC and adequate coverage. Countries like Mexico must measure this to identify underserved areas with a lack of geospatial access to healthcare to solve it. This type of analysis provides critical information to help decision-makers decide where to build new health facilities to increase effective geospatial access to care and to achieve Universal Health Coverage.