Mapping Marginal Gains: A GIS Approach to Enhancing Trauma Service Accessibility Across Communities

Marginal gains analysis, a geographic information system (GIS)-based approach, can be used to examine how the distribution of trauma centers affects the demographics of trauma care access across the levels of trauma care. This approach can be implemented accessing the American Community Survey and the state’s department of health trauma center dataset and incorporating tools from GIS software. This study underscores the importance of strategic planning in trauma center placement and enhancement and how GIS-based methodology provides a valuable tool for healthcare administrators and policy makers to inform decisions, evaluate the capacity and geographic accessibility of trauma care, and address the persistent inequities in trauma care availability. This approach also identifies spatial gaps in trauma care and demonstrates a methodology to assess the demographics of populations with and without adequate trauma care access.