Geographic Information Systems

GIS mapping capabilities offer a powerful tool for illustrating the impact of specific policies on the City’s neighborhoods.  In December 2007, when the State authorized the closure of five hospitals in New York City, the Comptroller’s <Office of Policy Management> joined forces with the agency’s technology support team to create borough-based maps that showed the location of every hospital in the City, and the impact of potential closings. The maps included metrics for patients seen at each hospital’s emergency room and the number of in-patient clinic visits and hospital admissions.  This geographic analysis clearly outlined that some neighborhoods had been hit hard by hospital closures, and, in several cases, the remaining hospitals slated for closure did not have excess capacity.  This type of analysis revealed critical information regarding potential patient wait and travel times associated with emergency room in-patient, and out-patient services.  The maps can assist advocates, planners and other stakeholders to assess the need for additional health care in specific communities.

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