PONE-D-21-07464

Assessing Emergency Healthcare Accessibility in the Salton Sea Region of Imperial County, California

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Juturu,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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3. Please amend either the title on the online submission form (via Edit Submission) or the title in the manuscript so that they are identical.

Additional Editor Comments:

Reviewer 1

The paper used RAAM to assess the level of emergency healthcare access in the Salton Sea region of Imperial County. In addition to travel times, the supply and demand for hospitals were taken into account. The method is novel and the study has practical application value. But there are still some problems:

1. Introduction. It should include reviews of other studies assessing the level of emergency healthcare access and explain the gaps to reflect the research value and innovation of this paper.

2. In Fig.5, it is suggested to increase the number of grades of the RAAM Scores to make the visualization effect better. The current results seem to be relatively general and cannot correspond well with the results in Fig.3. Also, the clarity of all figures should be improved.

3. The paper is of practical value, and the author gives policy suggestion. However, the content and analysis are not rich enough to meet the requirements of a research article. It is recommended to add deeper analysis and interpretation corresponding with the Policy Challenges section. In addition, the innovation of the study needs to be explained: whether the data/indicators are more perfect, or the method is better, etc. Most importantly, what are the supplements to the previous studies in this field. Please elaborate the innovation in the Introduction or Conclusion section.

Reviewer 2

The authors assessed the emergency healthcare accessibility in the Salton Sea region of Imperial County. The research methodologies are reasonable, and the findings are interesting. However, there are still a few aspects that should be improved to make the paper publishable. As the article is coherent and well-organized, I focus here only on some points, which are hopefully easy for the authors to take into account in the revision.

1. North arrow should be added to figures.

2. This work used 3:00 to 4:00 PM as a reference time to assess the accessibility. What about accessibility in the normal time? The comparison should be discussed because emergencies are random.

3. There are also some methods to evaluate accessibility pattern, and the advantages and disadvantages need to be emphasized. Suggest reading, for instance,

(1) The influence of high-speed rail on ice–snow tourism in northeastern China. Tourism Management,2020, doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2019.104070.

(2) Study on the Impact of High-speed Railway Opening on China's Accessibility Pattern and Spatial Equality[J]. Sustainability, 2018,10,2943. doi:10.3390/su10082943

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The paper used RAAM to assess the level of emergency healthcare access in the Salton Sea region of Imperial County. In addition to travel times, the supply and demand for hospitals were taken into account. The method is novel and the study has practical application value. But there are still some problems:

1. Introduction. It should include reviews of other studies assessing the level of emergency healthcare access and explain the gaps to reflect the research value and innovation of this paper.

2. In Fig.5, it is suggested to increase the number of grades of the RAAM Scores to make the visualization effect better. The current results seem to be relatively general and cannot correspond well with the results in Fig.3. Also, the clarity of all figures should be improved.

3. The paper is of practical value, and the author gives policy suggestion. However, the content and analysis are not rich enough to meet the requirements of a research article. It is recommended to add deeper analysis and interpretation corresponding with the Policy Challenges section. In addition, the innovation of the study needs to be explained: whether the data/indicators are more perfect, or the method is better, etc. Most importantly, what are the supplements to the previous studies in this field. Please elaborate the innovation in the Introduction or Conclusion section.

Reviewer #2: The authors assessed the emergency healthcare accessibility in the Salton Sea region of Imperial County. The research methodologies are reasonable, and the findings are interesting. However, there are still a few aspects that should be improved to make the paper publishable. As the article is coherent and well-organized, I focus here only on some points, which are hopefully easy for the authors to take into account in the revision.

1.North arrow should be added to figures.

2.This work used 3:00 to 4:00 PM as a reference time to assess the accessibility. What about accessibility in the normal time? The comparison should be discussed because emergencies are random.

3.There are also some methods to evaluate accessibility pattern, and the advantages and disadvantages need to be emphasized. Suggest reading, for instance,

(1)The influence of high-speed rail on ice–snow tourism in northeastern China. Tourism Management,2020, doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2019.104070.

(2)Study on the Impact of High-speed Railway Opening on China's Accessibility Pattern and Spatial Equality[J]. Sustainability, 2018,10,2943. doi:10.3390/su10082943

**********

6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Assessing emergency healthcare accessibility in the Salton Sea region of Imperial County, California

PONE-D-21-07464R1

Dear Dr. Juturu,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Jun Yang

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Accept

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

**********

2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Authors have taken into account my suggestions and comments. I believe the current version can be published.

**********

7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No