Geographical access to medical laboratory services in Shiraz, Hamadan and Shushtar: a GIS-based study

Equity in distribution of health services is one of the goals of health policy makers. Thus, an study entitled “modeling geographical access to medical laboratory services in Iran” was conducted in 2014. The present article is a case study using this model for site selection of new medical laboratories in Shiraz, Hamadan and Shushtar cities, Iran.
The study units included medical laboratories located within the city borders but outside of hospital and clinic settings. The main analysis task was layer and maps creation based on Geographic Information System (GIS). Spatial analysis performed using the ArcGIS software.
According to the geographical accessibility model, total area of lands valued as excellent and good for the establishment of new laboratories (outside of hospital and clinic settings) were identified in Shiraz and Hamadan and Shushtar. In Shiraz, at the time of present study, there were 64 medical laboratories outside of hospitals and clinics and there was possibility of construction of approximately 241 new laboratories in the city. The total area of lands valued as excellent and good for the establishment of new laboratories were about 2661 square meters. Therefore it was possible to establish 120 out of 241 new medical laboratories in the horizontal expansion of the city in these lands in Shiraz. In Hamadan, there were 24 medical laboratories outside of hospitals and clinics and there was possibility of construction of approximately 143 new laboratories in the city. The total area of lands valued as excellent and good for the establishment of new laboratories were about 130700 square meters. Therefore, it was possible to establish all proposed new medical laboratories in these lands in Hamadan. In Shushtar, there were 3 medical laboratories outside of hospitals and clinics and it was possibility of construction of approximately 9 new laboratories in the city. The total area of lands valued as excellent and good for the establishment of new laboratories were about 36800 square meters. Therefore it was possible to establish all proposed new medical laboratories in these lands in Shushtar.
It is possible to use geographical accessibility model for site selection of new medical laboratories in cities. The accuracy of selected sites should be confirmed with field visits.