Spatial distribution of specialized health services

In this paper we present a methodology for determining the spatial location of intermediate specialized health care centers in a given region. We propose a hierarchical structure with local hospital units intermediate centers and a referral center. The location of intermediate specialized health care centers is obtained as a solution to a p-median problem aiming to minimize the average travel distance for users. A practical application of this proposed methodology is developed in the state of Santa Catarina with the aim of planning a probable geographical distribution of Intermediate Cardiology Care Centers (CACIs) thus providing better quality care to the population that needs specialized cardiology services. The development of this practical application shows the feasibility of the proposed methodology and the results obtained demonstrate its validity.