1 Burn Center Coverage in the United States Final Report Project Members Kelly Chiczewski Marisol Ruiz Joel Toemy Project Client Dr. Julie Hwang, DePaul University Geographic Information Systems (GIS 242), Winter Quarter 2007 20 March 20072 Burn Center Coverage in the United States SUMMARY The Burn Center Advocacy Group is comprised of members Kelly Chiczewski, Marisol Ruiz and Joel Twomey. This project was initiated because our client Dr. Julie Hwang was interested in finding out what the current United States coverage of burn centers is like. Dr. Julie Hwang sought our expertise because she is interested in finding out what areas in the United States are currently underserved and over served with burn center locations. Dr. Hwang wished for The Burn Center Advocacy Group to evaluate the performance of burn centers in the U.S. in terms of its geographic coverage. Dr. Hwang sought our services because she believes that by using ArcGIS software and GIS tools we can create several maps that display the distribution of burn center facilities relative to population by state and burn center facilities relative to one million population and per 100,000 miles and utilize data of travel time via automobile to trauma centers to evaluate the service area of each individual burn center. Even though we were unable Through our use of ArcGIS software for determining U.S. burn center coverage, we helped the client accomplish the important objective of determining what areas in the United States are in need of new burn centers and what areas are currently over served by burn centers, and with this information we can find the optimal locations for burn centers. This data would be highly beneficial to policy makers in the United States, and particularly policy makers who advocate for the improvement of public health services in the United States. This project will benefit all Americans and aid in making burn centers throughout the United States more accessible. Elected public officials should have a vested interest in this project, in order to improve the public health of their constituents. Through our analysis we have determined the ratio of served populations compared to underserved populations for the entire United States. We have created a geocoded map of all burn center locations, a set of 1 hour transportation buffers, and population tabulations for areas inside and outside of the buffers.3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….. 2. Needs Assessment………………………………………………………………… 2.1 Background……………………………………………………………… 2.1.1 Project Client – The Organization and Client Needs………….. 2.2 Project Goals…………………………………………………………….. 2.3 Objectives……………………………………………………………….. 2.4 Information Categories Utilized………………………………………… 2.5 Information Structures/Products………………………………………… 3. System Requirements…………………………………………………………….. 3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………... 3.2 Data Requirements as a Conceptual Database………………………….. 3.2.1 List of Object Classes…………………………………………. 3.2.2 Object Diagram………………………………………………... 3.2.3 Matrix of Need-to-Know Questions and Object Classes……… 3.3 Software Requirements…………………………………………………. 3.3.1 Matrix of Need-to-Know Questions and Functions…………… 3.4 Personnel Requirements…………………………………………………. 3.5 Timing…………………………………………………………………… 3.6 Institutional Requirements………………………………………………. 4. Data Acquisition …………………………………………………………………. 4.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………… 4.2 Data Source Steps……………………………………………………….. 4.3 Fitness for Use…………………………………………………………… 4.4 Data Acquisition Constraints…………………………………………….. 5. Data Analysis……………………………………………………………………… 5.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………. 5.2 Analysis Plan…………………………………………………………….. 6. Results…………………………………………………………………………….. 6.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………… 6.2 Findings………………………………………………………………….. 7. Project Evaluation…………………………………………………………………. 8. Summary, Recommendations, and Conclusions…………………………………… 9. References…………………………………………………………………………. Appendix A: Data Dictionary…………………………………………………………4 1.) INTRODUCTION Dr. Julie Hwang Sungsoon currently teaches Geographic Information Systems through De Paul University’s Geography department. Dr. Hwang received her bachelor’s degree in Geography education in Korea at Seoul National University, her master’s degree in GIS at U.K University of Nottingham and attained her doctoral degree from University at Buffalo in 2005. Prior to teaching at DePaul University, Dr. Hwang worked in the University of Washington where she was a GIS lecturer. Dr. Hwang is an expert in Geographic Information Systems, as well as the Burn Center Advocacy Group’s client. The entire project essentially revolved around the need to know question. Our client’s main goal was also represented in our research question, which designates the Burn Center Advocacy Group to utilize data of current burn centers in order to evaluate current and future geographic locations of burn centers throughout the United States.. However, even though a major factors