Emergency Department Usage in St. Clair County, Illinois

Health geography is the application of spatial information, perspectives, and methods to the study of health, disease, and medical care. This subfield of geography frequently examines spatial phenomena such as the spread of disease, the accessibility of clean water, and the availability of healthy grocery stores. Also of special interest to health geographers is the accessibility of hospitals and urgent care centers relative to the distribution of a place's population. In particular, hospital emergency departments play significant roles in the communities they serve. This article provides a first analysis of emergency department usage in St. Clair County, Illinois. This sizable southwestern Illinois county is home to three hospitals and within half an hour of a multitude of greater St. Louis area hospitals. By analyzing hospital discharge data using R and geographic information systems, we reveal the most frequently utilized hospitals, show the variation of hospital choice across the county, and describe ...