Health Policy Manag.  2017 Dec;27(4):315-323. 10.4332/KJHPA.2017.27.4.315.

A Study on the Spatial Accessibility to the Psychiatry Department in General Hospital and Its Relationship with the Visit of Mental Patients

• Dong JY
• Lee KS

• KMID: 2405635
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4332/KJHPA.2017.27.4.315

Abstract

BACKGROUND
This study was purposed to analyze the effect of spatial accessibility to the psychiatry department in general hospital on the outpatient visit of mental patients.
METHODS
Data was provided from the Statistics Korea and Statistical Geographic Information Service, National Health Insurance Service, Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, and Korea Transport Institute in 2015. The study regions were 103 administrative regions such as Si and Gu. The 103 regions had at least one general hospitals with a psychiatry department. The number of outpatient visit of mental patients in regions was used as the dependent variable. Spatial accessibility to mental general hospital was used as the independent variable. Control variables included such as demographic, economic, and health·medical factors. This study used network analysis and multi-variate regression analysis. Network analysis by ArcGIS ver. 10.0 (ESRI, Redlands, CA, USA) was used to evaluate the average travel time and travel distance in Korea. Multi-variate regression analysis was conducted by SAS ver. 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA).
RESULTS
Travel distance and time had significant effects on the number of outpatient visits in mental patients in general hospital. Average travel time and travel distance had negative effects on the number of visits. Variables such as (number of total population, percentage of aged population over 65, and number of mental general hospital) had significant effects on the number of visit in mental patients.
CONCLUSION
Health policy makers will need to consider the spatial accessibility to the mental healthcare organization in conducting regional health planning.

Keyword

Mental disease; Spatial accessibility; Geographic Information Service; Network; Outpatient visits; General hospitals

MeSH Terms

Delivery of Health Care
Health Policy
Health Services
Hospitals, General*
Humans
Information Services
Insurance
Korea
Mentally Ill Persons*
National Health Programs
Outpatients
Regional Health Planning