Analysis of Transfer Distance of Emergency Stroke Cases in Kumamoto, Japan

In this article, we have investigated the actual situation of transfer distance of emergency cases by pathology base (neurological, cardiologic, pediatric and injury cases), based on the DPC data of Kumamoto prefecture. We have extracted 36,490 emergency cases of Kumamoto prefecture from the DPC database (1st July 1 2010 to 31st December 2010). Using the master table for the distance between each hospitals and each residential place represented by ZIP code in Japan, we have estimated the transfer distance of each emergency case and calculated the average distances for each of 5 categories (neurological, cardiologic, pediatric and injury cases) for each health care region (HCR). In the case of neurological cases, average, standard deviation (SD) and Coefficient of variance (CV) were 11.9Km, 10.3Km and 25.1% for Kumamoto total. There was a wide variation for average transfer distance from 5.9Km (Kumamoto HCR) to 30.0 km (Kamoto HCR). The situation is similar for cardiac cases, injury cases and pediatric cases. In order to solve this access problem of emergency care, the governance power of Regional Health Care Plan must be strengthened.