Optimizing health service location in a highly urbanized city: Multi criteria decision making and P-Median problem models for public hospitals in Jeddah City, KSA.

Rapid urbanization and population growth have increased the need for optimizing the location of health services in highly urbanized countries like Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This study employs a multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach, e.g.

Modelling geographical heterogeneity of diabetes prevalence and socio-economic and built environment determinants in Saudi City - Jeddah.

Type-2 diabetes is a growing lifestyle disease mainly due to increasing physical inactivity but also associated with various other variables. In Saudi Arabia, around 58.5% of the population is deemed to be physically inactive.

Using the location-allocation P-median model for optimising locations for health care centres in the city of Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia.

Considering spatial accessibility of health services is a critical part in the planning and management of health services. There is evidence that poor geographical locations can obstruct prompt basic health care services to some population sections. We developed a location-allocation P-median model for health centres after analysing their sites, demand location of health services and the road network in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Planning and location of health care services in Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia: Discussion of the constructive use of geographical information systems.

Geographical information systems (GIS) is used for health care planning due to the increasing availability of geo-coded health data that is moving the field towards to health information systems. The aim of this paper is to present GIS applications for planning health services in Jeddah City. The discussion is focused on three major issues: i) identifying the location of health service facilities and their distribution; ii) modelling the level of density needed for health service facilities; and iii) identifying the required levels of accessibility to these health services.

Using geographical information systems for defining the accessibility to health care facilities in Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia.

Spatial data play an important role in the planning of health care facilities and their allocation. Today, geographical information systems (GIS) provide useful techniques for capturing, maintaining and analysing health care spatial data; indeed health geoinformatics is an emerging discipline that uses innovative geospatial technology to investigate health issues. The purpose of this paper is to define how GIS can be used for assessing the level of accessibility to health care.

Defining health catchment areas in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia: an example demonstrating the utility of geographical information systems.

A tool, based on a geographical information system (GIS) approach, has been developed for the location and organization of public health care centers in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. The potential of GIS for visualizing and modeling available information on health-care has been utilized to produce a "best-fit application". This paper identifies and deals with the manner in which GIS can successfully be used for evaluating the demand and supply of health care facilities as well as be applied for defining health catchment areas.

Creating a GIS application for health services at Jeddah city.

This paper explores the possibilities of using GIS for private hospitals at Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. A GIS application is created to cover three main health planning issues which are distribution of health demand, classification of hospital patients and the definition of hospital service area. Each one of these issues is covered using several GIS functions including network analysis and overlay analysis.

Creating a GIS application for local health care planning in Saudi Arabia.

The purpose of this paper is to show how Geographical Information Systems can be used to support health planners on a micro-scale. The first part of this paper discusses the issue that affect local health care planning which include monitoring of catchment area and facilities management. The second part defines GIS and its possible uses in the health care field.