OPTIMAL LOCATION OF EMERGENCY DISPENSING SITES

1
OPTIMAL LOCATION OF EMERGENCY DISPENSING SITES IN
WORCESTER COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A Ann
Jyothis Raj08

Sponsor Professor Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger
INTRODUCTION Public health and access to
health care are important concerns that face any
state or local government, this concern is
heightened greatly during public health
emergencies. During a public health emergency,
such as a large scale disease outbreak or
bioterrorism event, public health agencies may be
tasked to provide antibiotics or vaccines to all
members of our community potentially exposed to
the disease, this is done by setting up Emergency
Dispensing Sites (EDS).  The sole purpose of an
Emergency Dispensing Site (EDS) is to quickly
distribute preventive medication to large numbers
of people during a public health emergency.
. This project uses GIS
based tools to evaluate sites for emergency
dispensing in Worcester County based on
population census blocks and EDS catchment areas.
EDS are planned in a county such that individuals
who need medication can get it quickly, thus
accessibility to EDS is a major factor that
influences where the EDS should be located
. This study
assumes that existing public schools or town
halls would be preferred location for an EDS. It
does not take into account the capacity of an EDS
which influences how many people can access it at
one time. Presented here is the outcome of two
possible options 1. Using existing Public
Schools as Emergency Dispensing Sites 2. Using
existing Town Halls as Emergency Dispensing Sites
COST DISTANCE IMAGES
RESULTS CONCLUSION
Although the Town Hall EDS seem to have a uniform
geographical distribution compared to the Public
School EDS, it may not be the best location for
EDS. This is because of the varying population
density in Worcester County, as illustrated in
the Population Density Map Graph 1 shows the
distribution of the population to each Town Hall
EDS, it is apparent that some town halls in
Worcester County may not sufficiently serve its
population. Conversely, the Public Schools will
serve as a better EDS Sites due to its greater
distribution in the county, especially in the
highly populated areas . The
distance calculated between each EDS and the
census population block in its catchment area or
the distance shed can illustrate how well the
distribution of EDS are in the county with
respect to the population census blocks
.
Further research could include
population demographics to better understand
where EDS should be located and how it must be
designed. The capacity of an EDS can also be
considered before assigning populations to any
particular EDS. A combination of Town Halls and
Public Schools could be used to evaluate the most
optimal combination of EDS to serve the Worcester
communities
Cost Distance from School EDSs in Worcester
County. The red circles represent the individual
Public Schools.
Cost Distance from Town Hall EDSs in Worcester
County. The yellow squares represent the
individual Town Halls.
Graph 1
CATCHMENT AREAS
References Black, M., Ebener, S., et al., Using
GIS to Measure Physical Accessibility to Health
Care, in 2004 International Health Users
conference. 2004 Washington DC. IDRISI
Tutorial GIS and Mountain Environment - Exercise
3 Modeling Access to Health Care Anistropic
Cost Distance, pg 51 70, Clark Labs,
MA Nelson, Andy, Accessibility, Transport and
Travel Time Information, Modeling Across
Geographic Scales Activity 2.5, pgs15, 2000.
Methodology After preparing the data for the
study area, two separate data analysis were done
based on the distinction between Public Schools
as EDS and Town Halls as EDS. The flowchart below
illustrates the methodology used for both cases

Worcester County Population Dot Density Map
Census Block Population
Poster Production Date May 1st 2007 Map
Projection Massachusetts State Plane NAD
83 Software Used IDRISI Andes ArcView 9.1 Data
Source Massachusetts Governments MassGIS
Data Contact Information Email -
ARaj_at_clarku.edu
Website - http//students.clarku.edu/araj/