Planning the Delivery of Home-Based Long-Term Care: A Mathematical Programming-Based Tool to Support Routes’ Planning

Abstract

The adequate planning of home-based long-term care (HBLTC) is essential in the current European setting where long-term care (LTC) demand is increasing rapidly, and where homebased care represents a potential cost-saving alternative from traditional inpatient care. Particularly, this planning should involve proper route planning to ensure visits of health professionals to patients' homes. Nevertheless, literature in the specific area of HBLTC planning is still scarce. Accordingly, this paper proposes a tool based on a mathematical programming modelthe LTC routes -for supporting the daily planning of routes to visit LTC patients' homes in National Health Service-based countries. The model allows exploring the impact of considering different objectives relevant in this sector, including the minimization of costs and the maximization of service level. Patients' preferences, traffic conditions and budget constraints are also considered in the proposed model. To illustrate the applicability of the model, a case study based on the National Network of LTC in Portugal (RNCCI) is analysed.