Is there regional inequality in the medical accessibility of the severely injured? Application of driving time data in South Korea

Abstract

An important aspect of successfully treating the severely injured, or trauma patients, is accessibility to a hospital within an hour (the “golden hour”). In this study, we use novel driving time data to investigate the regional disparity in accessing trauma centers in 3,400 townships in South Korea. We found that 99.8% of residents in metropolitan cities were located within a 60-minute drive to trauma centers, whereas 21% of residents (6 million) in non-metropolitan cities could not reach trauma centers within 60 minutes. The results suggest that government resources should be prioritized toward improving trauma center accessibility in non-metropolitan regions.