An empirical analysis of health care facilities in Ankara

Urban units such as health center, hospital and dispensary are necessary in urban areas, and site selection for them is important in creation of an effective health care system, ease of access, improving urban life quality and a healthy social environment. In Turkey, the criteria for health care site selection, according to urban policy and urban analysis is being ignored. Transportation and other urban systems are affected by this situation. This study aimed to analyze the hospital locations in Ankara and investigate their current position within the framework of healthy urban planning, especially in terms of accessibility. The location of hospitals, service areas and accessibility of them were analyzed using the buffer and network analysis; also their relationship with the environment is modeled using characteristics of supply and demand. According to the results of buffer and network analysis, service areas of hospitals in light traffic conditions gets bigger, but it gets smaller in high traffic situations. Furthermore, hospitals with emergency service cover more than 50,0% of Ankara's metropolitan area that should be replaced by a system that covers entire of this area. Spatial interaction model was used to identify the relationship between characteristics of hospitals (beds, number of physicians, insurance type, ownership status, type of service offered, specialized status) and demand characteristic (inpatient number). Based on the results, positive relationship was found between accessibility and both physician and bed numbers in hospitals. In conclusion; buffer, network analysis and spatial interaction model can be used effectively to determine the positions of health investment.