Mathematical location models applied in the spatial organization of healthunits

Mathematical location models have been increasingly applied in the health s ervices at the international level. In Brazil, although incipient, there ex ists an enormous potential for the use of such models in the area of public health. In this paper several location models that can be applied to publi c health are presented initially, and the location of non-emergency service s, of emergency services and of services hierarchically related are analyse d. A hierarchical model is then applied to the location of maternal and per inatal assistance in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. In this part, afte r presenting some related data for the municipality, a four-level hierarchi cal model (location of out-patient units, maternity hospitals, neonatal hos pitals and general hospitals) is proposed and the impact that the adoption of this methodology would have as compared with that of the present system is analysed.