Analysis of the Characteristics of Cross-Regional Patient Groups and Differences in Hospital Service Utilization in Beijing

When medical diagnostic difficulties occur at local hospitals, seeking high-quality services across regions becomes a priority for many patients. Traditional statistical methods in health care are unable to account for spatial characteristics such as outflow place or distributions of disease type and patient ages in the context of an increasing number of cross-regional groups; thus, these methods are incapable of studying service utilization differences among hospitals. From a geographic perspective, we analyzed the spatial characteristics of cross-regional patient groups who travelled from other places to Beijing and the spatial decay patterns in the actual service utilization of different hospitals in Beijing by using geographic calculations, geographic visualizations, and distance decay functions. We found the following results: (1) It is feasible to study patients’ cross-regional mobility from a geographical perspective. Through interdisciplinary integration, we can explore laws and conclusions that cannot be examined by traditional statistical methods in health care. (2) The characteristics of cross-regional patients who travelled from other places to Beijing were as follows: (a) Most patients came from northern China, and neoplasm treatment was the main demand of cross-regional patients; (b) patients 40–65 years old were the main cross-regional treatment group, and the average age of patients from northern regions and certain eastern coastal cities was relatively high. (3) The exponential distance decay function was the best of all five distance decay functions in fitting the distribution of cross-regional patient mobility to hospitals of different levels, types, and functional areas. The results of applying this function and the centrality calculation method showed that hospital service utilization was least affected by distance and that average radial distances (AR) were greatest in tertiary hospitals (distance decay coefficient β = 0.0786, AR = 664.70 km), traditional Chinese medicine hospitals (β = 0.0752, AR = 743.52 km), and hospitals in urban extension areas (β = 0.0782, AR = 693.29 km). Our results can serve as a reference for research concerning the allocation of medical resources and patients’ choices regarding medical treatment.