Measuring geospatial healthcare access to primary level facilities in Mexico: a GIS-based diagnosis analysis

Abstract

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 contribute 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 indicators. We estimated service area coverage of PHC facilities with road networks of three Mexican states (Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca). Our estimations provide an overview of spatial access to healthcare of the Mexican population in Mexico’s three most impoverished states. We did not consider 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.