Spatial Pattern of Hierarchical Medical Facility Accessibility and Identification of Its Driving Factors: A Case Study of Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province
The spatial accessibility of medical facilities is a crucial factor related to urban public safety and social stability. This study took Yuncheng City in Shanxi Province as the research area and township as the smallest research unit. It comprehensively evaluated the spatial accessibility of hierarchical medical facilities in Yuncheng City with the cost grid method and an improved two-step mobile search method from the perspectives of both intracity and cross-city healthcare seeking. The results indicated that the spatial distribution of accessibility to hierarchical medical facilities in Yuncheng City was uneven. Within the city, it exhibited a multi-core pattern, with 32.56% and 25.11% of the population covered by primary and upper-level medical facilities within 15 min, respectively. As for cross-city healthcare seeking, the main urban areas of districts and counties were the high-value centers of accessibility. The influencing factors of medical facility accessibility differed between intracity and cross-city healthcare seeking, with the elderly population ratio and economic level serving as the decisive factors, respectively. The findings of this study have both theoretical and practical significance for the equitable development of medical services in cities in the central region.
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