GIS in healthcare planning and provision: A case study of Homa-Bay district, Kenya

Abstract

The healthcare system in Kenya faces numerous problems such as lack of coordination in infrastructural and human resource investments, mismatch between demand and supply of available resources, poor accessibility, underfunding, political interference and high number of home deliveries among others. The purpose of this research work was to illustrate how healthcare planning and provision problems, which characterise the health sector in developing countries, can be addressed with the aid of geographical information systems. Through a case study of health facilities in Homa-Bay District in Kenya, an inventory mapping of the health facilities was undertaken, and the enhanced two step floating catchment area method was applied to analyse their spatial accessibility. The spatial accessibility map was integrated with poverty map through overlay to provide a healthcare accessibility index map. The problems of lack of coordination and mismatch of demand and supply were found to be easily solvable through inventory mapping of health facilities, while low or poor accessibility could be addressed by the analysis of spatial accessibility through enhanced two step floating catchment area method. The integration of non-spatial factors was utilised to improve the analyses of accessibility. Almost all the facilities within the study area were found to be ill equipped and understaffed. Both the eastern and western parts of the district were found to have relatively lower levels of accessibility in comparison with the northern and southern parts. A high correlation between poverty and spatial accessibility patterns was also elucidated in the area.