Identifying Hospital Deserts in Texas Before and During the COVID-19 Outbreak

In this study, we proposed a GIS-based approach to analyze the hospital visitors between 2019 and 2020 to find a significant change in the number of visitors according to demographics. The results indicated that American Indian and Pacific Islander were the only two demographics that sometimes showed no shift in visitor levels between the years. The average distance traveled to most hospitals from home increased in 2020 compared to 2019. Additionally, a hospital desert index was calculated to represent the "hospital deserts," areas that the demand for hospitals is greater than the current hospital supply. Hospital desert index takes into account the travel time, location, bed supply, and population. The cities located along the outskirts of metropolitan regions and rural towns show more hospital deserts than dense city centers.