Planning and location of health care services in Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia: Discussion of the constructive use of geographical information systems.

Geographical information systems (GIS) is used for health care planning due to the increasing availability of geo-coded health data that is moving the field towards to health information systems. The aim of this paper is to present GIS applications for planning health services in Jeddah City. The discussion is focused on three major issues: i) identifying the location of health service facilities and their distribution; ii) modelling the level of density needed for health service facilities; and iii) identifying the required levels of accessibility to these health services. The issues covered include GIS, choropleth mapping, kernel density modelling, Euclidean (straight-line) distance and drive-time distance models. These approaches are essential and considered the major spatial decision models required to support health care for decision- makers and planners in Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia.