An Agent-Based Model for Addressing the Impact of a Disaster on Access to Primary Care Services

作者：Guclu Hasan^*; Kumar Supriya^*; Galloway David; Krauland Mary; Sood Rishi; Bocour Angelica; Hershey Tina Batra; van Nostrand Elizabeth; Potter Margaret

来源：Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2016, 10(3): 386-393.

DOI：10.1017/dmp.2016.44

• primary care access
• planning
• agent-based model
• spatial
• hurricane
• Superstorm Sandy

Objective Hurricane Sandy in the Rockaways, Queens, forced residents to evacuate and primary care providers to close or curtail operations. A large deficit in primary care access was apparent in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Our objective was to build a computational model to aid responders in planning to situate primary care services in a disaster-affected area.
Methods Using an agent-based modeling platform, HAZEL, we simulated the Rockaways population, its evacuation behavior, and primary care providers' availability in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Data sources for this model included post-storm and community health surveys from New York City, a survey of the Rockaways primary care providers, and research literature. The model then tested geospatially specific interventions to address storm-related access deficits.
Results The model revealed that areas of high primary care access deficit were concentrated in the eastern part of the Rockaways. Placing mobile health clinics in the most populous census tracts reduced the access deficit significantly, whereas increasing providers' capacity by 50% reduced the deficit to a lesser degree.
Conclusions An agent-based model may be a useful tool to have in place so that policy makers can conduct scenario-based analyses to plan interventions optimally in the event of a disaster.

• 出版日期2016-6