When more is less: Urban disparities in access to surgical care by transportation means

Structural factors limiting access to surgical care require elucidation. We hypothesize transportation time to hospitals with surgical capacity disproportionately burdens minority populations.

We identified hospitals with surgical capacity within a 20-mile radius of our city center. Using geocoding, we estimated travel times from each census tract to the nearest facility by car or public bus.

For 143 tracts within the county, drive time was 13 ± 4 min and bus time was 33 ± 15 min. Only 41.2% of the population had a facility within 30 min by bus; access was further diminished for those with minority race/ethnicity and/or no insurance. Bus time was associated with percent minority population in a census tract: for each 10% increase in minority population there was a 4.3-min increase in bus time (p < 0.001) when controlling for socioeconomic status and other characteristics.

Geographic information systems analysis has potential to identify communities with disproportionate burden to access surgical services.