Geospatial database of Ghanaian health facilities based on publicly available government datasets
This study presents an updated, publicly available geospatial database of 6,710 health facilities in Ghana by integrating and validating three government datasets using Python and QGIS to address the lack of recent geocoded health infrastructure data.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
In the modern world, knowing where things are located is often the first step toward making them work. For a doctor trying to reach a patient in a remote village, or a policymaker deciding where to build a new clinic, having a precise map of health facilities is not just helpful; it is essential. This need is especially urgent in countries like Ghana, where the landscape of healthcare is a complex mix of bustling city hospitals and small rural outposts, all connected by roads that vary from paved highways to dirt tracks. To manage this system effectively, officials need a single, reliable list that tells them exactly what facilities exist, what kind of care they offer, and where they stand on the ground. Without this information, resources can be wasted, gaps in care can go unnoticed, and the goal of providing healthcare to every citizen becomes much harder to reach.
For years, the most complete map of Ghana's health facilities was a static snapshot taken in 2016. Since then, the country has grown, new clinics have opened, and old ones have closed, but the public data had not kept pace. A new study has finally updated this picture by stitching together three different government lists into one comprehensive database. The researchers combined records from the Ministry of Health, the National Health Insurance Agency, and the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency. By merging these sources, they created a living map of 6,710 health facilities across the entire country, ranging from large teaching hospitals to small community health posts. This effort transforms scattered government records into a single, usable tool that can guide decisions on where to send ambulances, how to distribute medicine, and where to focus future investment.
The journey to create this map began with three separate piles of data, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. The oldest pile came from a 2016 publication by the Ministry of Health, which was the last time the government had released a list with exact coordinates for every facility. The second pile came from the National Health Insurance Agency, which maintains a list of every place that accepts health insurance cards; this list was very detailed about the types of services offered but lacked specific location coordinates. The third pile came from the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency, an organization that licenses and inspects facilities, providing a fresh list of accredited institutions that also lacked precise location data. The challenge was to bring these three distinct lists together, remove the duplicates, and fill in the missing location details for the thousands of facilities that appeared on the newer lists but not the old one.
To solve this, the team used computer programs to standardize the names and types of facilities across all three lists. They cleaned up the data, ensuring that a "clinic" in one list was treated the same as a "clinic" in another, and they removed entries that were clearly the same place listed twice. Once the lists were merged, they were left with a massive dataset of over 8,000 entries, many of which still did not have a latitude and longitude. To find the missing locations, the researchers turned to digital mapping services. They fed the names and addresses of the facilities into public mapping tools, which returned geographic coordinates for the vast majority of them. This process was not perfect; the team had to manually check thousands of points to ensure that a facility listed in a specific district actually appeared within that district's borders on the map. They found that a small number of entries had been placed in the wrong region or even outside the country entirely, and they corrected these errors by re-checking the data against official administrative boundaries.
The final result is a database of 6,710 unique health facilities, a number that reflects the true scale of Ghana's healthcare network. The map reveals that the most common types of facilities are clinics, health centers, and community health posts, which together make up more than half of the total. Hospitals of all sizes, from primary care units to large tertiary centers, account for a smaller but critical portion of the network. The database also includes specialized centers for eye care, dental work, and mental health, as well as administrative offices that manage the health system. By combining the most recent information from the insurance and regulatory agencies with the geospatial data from the older ministry list, the researchers were able to preserve the most accurate details for each facility. For instance, if a newer list had a more current address for a clinic, that address was kept, while the location coordinates from the older, verified list were used to place it on the map.
This work addresses a significant gap in the availability of up-to-date health information for Ghana. While the process relied on publicly available tools and government data, the researchers noted that the lack of a standardized postal address system in the country made the geocoding process difficult. They also pointed out that the original government lists sometimes used outdated regional boundaries, which required careful updating to match the current administrative divisions of the country. Despite these hurdles, the resulting database offers a clear, verified view of where healthcare resources are located. It provides a foundation for better planning, allowing officials to see exactly where services are concentrated and where they might be missing. For the first time in nearly a decade, anyone looking at this data can see a complete, geographically accurate picture of the health facilities that serve the people of Ghana.
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