A geospatial study of the coverage of catheterization laboratory facilities (cath labs) and the travel time required...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Geospatial Analysis
• Health Infrastructure

Background:

• Coronary heart disease (CHD) treatment is dependent on specialized infrastructure like cardiac catheterization laboratories (cath labs).
• Effective healthcare access is crucial for managing non-communicable diseases such as CHD.
• Regional health facility coverage requires robust geospatial assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a preliminary geospatial study on regional health facility coverage.
• To assess the availability of cardiac catheterization laboratory (cath lab) infrastructure.
• To provide insights for future research on healthcare access and distribution.

Main Methods:

• Data collection involved direct surveys for cath lab presence and open-source geospatial systems for population data.
• Geographical Information System (GIS) tools were utilized to analyze travel times from sub-district centers to the nearest cath lab.
• Service coverage was evaluated based on calculated travel times to assess accessibility.

Main Results:

• The number of cath labs in East Java increased from 16 to 33 over six years.
• The proportion of the population with 1-hour access to a cath lab improved from 24.2% to 53.8%.
• Despite improvements, 16.5% of East Java's population remains without cath lab access within 2 hours.

Conclusions:

• While cath lab availability has increased, significant accessibility gaps persist in East Java.
• Additional cath lab facilities are essential to achieve ideal healthcare coverage.
• Geospatial analysis is a key tool for optimizing the distribution of healthcare facilities like cath labs.