An integrated location–allocation model for reducing disparities and increasing accessibility to public health screening centers

The tests for tracking diseases in newborns available through the National Neonatal Screening Program of the Brazilian Unified Health Care System cover six diseases. Mass spectrometer equipment is needed to expand and more efficiently and effectively detect new diseases. However, only four neonatal screening centers have the equipment capable of carrying out the extended test, and the expansion of health service capacity should consider both the rationalization of costs and the comprehensiveness and accessibility of care to the population. This study uses analytics to analyze and estimate the cost of centralized or distributed logistics networks and the level of service to perform the expanded test for newborns throughout Brazil. We evaluate the accessibility of the current infrastructure for the neonatal screening program and propose a novel location–allocation model to create a more integrated infrastructure for reducing disparities and increase the accessibility to neonatal screening services. •Propose an innovative analytical method to improve accessibility to newborn health screening.•Combine accessibility analysis and location optimization to create different policy scenarios.•The cost of adding more equipment is proportionally less than the increased effectiveness.•Increase accessibility to tests by procuring up to 56 equipment across 45 municipalities.•Reduce displacement from 984 km ± 21 km (95% CI) to 206 ± 3.6 km (95% CI).