A single number for healthcare access — measured, not guessed
Healthcare access is hard to compare until a household needs care. CartoChrome puts a 0–100 score on eligible ZIP/ZCTA records so people can review provider, hospital, travel, and population barriers before they rely on a location.
US ZIP Codes scored
Physician profiles
Facilities indexed
Government datasets
Conditions scored per ZIP Code
Research citations
What we saw
Many Americans live inside federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas, and most consumer tools do not show that shortage context at ZIP Code scale. The data is public. The methodology is published. Nobody had bothered to put it on a map at the scale people actually shop for houses. Source: HRSA Bureau of Health Workforce shortage area registry
- No way to compare two ZIP Codes on healthcare — only crime, schools, and walkability
- Existing tools rank providers or facilities, never the whole system
- County-level data hides a 30-point gap between adjacent ZIP Codes
- Transportation, insurance, and disability — the barriers that keep providers out of reach — are ignored
What we built
A 0–100 healthcare access score explained through People Score, Provider Score, Hospital Score, and Travel Score. Overall and condition-specific scores use the same public contract and publish with source freshness, quality status, and citations.
- ZIP/ZCTA-level scoring, not only county averages
- Four public score drivers: People, Provider, Hospital, and Travel
- People Score uses public SDOH inputs but cannot inflate missing provider, hospital, or travel access
- Live provider and facility profiles in one index, cross-linked by NPI and facility ID
Why this doesn't exist anywhere else
Healthgrades has providers. CDC PLACES has outcomes. County Health Rankings has counties. Nobody has all of it at the ZIP Code.
| Dimension | CartoChrome | Others |
|---|---|---|
| Granularity | Live ZIP-level scores | 3,200 counties or 50 states |
| Methodology | Healthcare Access Score with four public drivers | Provider counts or star ratings |
| Data breadth | Live provider, facility, and Census SDOH coverage | Providers or facilities — rarely both |
| Visualization | Interactive ZIP-level score map | Static county heatmaps or PDF tables |
| Data freshness | Public source registry on an automated refresh | Annual report, proprietary licensing |
| Distribution | Free REST API + embeddable widget | Paywalled reports or CSV downloads |
Six rules we refuse to break
Every shortcut on this list was considered — and rejected — because it would have made the score less true.
Show the math
The full formula is published at /methodology/. Every coefficient, every decay function, every data source. If you disagree with a score, you can argue with the equation.
Academic methodology, not a vibe
Internal spatial-access methods are grounded in published accessibility research, and the public score is explained through Provider, Hospital, Travel, and People drivers. No black-box ML, no proprietary hidden score.
Refreshed automatically
Source freshness is tracked in the public data-source registry. When a required source is stale or unavailable, public scores should degrade instead of pretending the data is current.
People barriers can only penalize
Social advantage cannot invent missing providers or hospitals. People Score is penalty-first: insurance, income, disability, language, and age barriers can lower an otherwise strong access picture, but they cannot create access where supply and travel are weak.
Every populated ZIP Code, not just the metros
Coverage is ZIP/ZCTA-level, not just county-level. Rural communities and dense metros use the same public score contract, with source freshness and quality status attached.
Public-source data, reviewed before publication
CartoChrome uses public healthcare, census, routing, and research sources. Public claims are withheld unless the source registry, licensing review, freshness status, and citation records support them.
How we got here
Published citations, a public source registry, and indexable pages generated only when the underlying data is eligible.
Built the research registry around established healthcare-access methods, including E2SFCA, transportation-barrier research, SDOH framing, and validation benchmarks.
Wired up the public source registry — CMS NPPES, HRSA HPSA, Census ACS, CDC PLACES, and other free sources — into an automated pipeline that refreshes without a human touching a spreadsheet.
Built the E2SFCA scoring engine that rolls internal access math into one public Healthcare Access Score with People, Provider, Hospital, and Travel drivers.
Shipped the interactive ZIP Code score map. One map for eligible ZIP Code, county, and state pages. Overall score plus condition-specific scores, with eligible public pages generated from the truth layer.
Opened the REST API and the embeddable widget. Real estate platforms, insurers, and journalists can now pull any ZIP Code’s score with one authenticated HTTP call.
The research stack
Every weight, decay function, and threshold traces back to a citation.
99
Peer-reviewed papers in the research library
36
Cited directly in the scoring formula
10
Health domains represented
Domains: neighborhood access frameworks, mental health, rural care, surgery, cancer, veteran care, women's health, emergency and trauma, cardiometabolic disease, and infectious disease.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions About CartoChrome
What is CartoChrome?
CartoChrome is a healthcare access map and score system for US ZIP Codes. It turns public provider, facility, Census, HRSA, CDC, and transportation data into one main Healthcare Access Score with People, Provider, Hospital, and Travel explanations.
Who is CartoChrome for?
Homebuyers, relocators, journalists, researchers, providers, health systems, insurers, and real estate platforms can use CartoChrome to compare healthcare access before a move, story, investment, or partnership decision.
Does CartoChrome use private patient data?
No. CartoChrome uses public government and public healthcare infrastructure datasets plus aggregated geography-level statistics. It does not expose, sell, or model individual patient records.
Why is the map the product?
Healthcare access is geographic. The map makes provider supply, hospital access, people barriers, and travel barriers visible at ZIP Code level so users can see local healthcare deserts and stronger-access areas immediately.
Go check your ZIP Code
The score is free. The methodology is public. The map opens in one click.