Sustainable Urban Homecare Delivery with Different Means of Transport

Norina Szander, Lorenzo Ros-McDonnell, María Victoria De-la-Fuente-Aragón and Robert Vodopivec
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Norina Szander: Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, 5290 Šempeter-Vrtojba, Slovenia
Lorenzo Ros-McDonnell: Business Engineering Research Group, Polytechnic University of Cartagena, 30202 Cartagena, Spain
María Victoria De-la-Fuente-Aragón: Business Engineering Research Group, Polytechnic University of Cartagena, 30202 Cartagena, Spain
Robert Vodopivec: Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, 5290 Šempeter-Vrtojba, Slovenia

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: Due to the increasing number of requests for homecare services, care institutions struggle to perform in urban traffic, which eventually makes travel times longer and less predictable and, therefore, leads to a declining service quality. Homecare delivery scheduling and planning tools must lead to efficient reliable routes that allow the nursing crew to make the least efforts and use the fewest institutional resources, and that consider urban sustainability goals. For the case study, a European city was selected with 58,000 people of whom 73 patients received long-term care at homes provided by 11 homecare nurses. While maximising patient satisfaction, a homecare planning algorithm considered many means of transport and minimised travel times. The study reduced the total nurses’ working hours/day by a bus and walking combination, and by comparing if nurses ride e-bikes, which respectively reduced ~35–44% of the total time that nurses spent travelling. This result is applicable to an urban environment where the public transport network is sufficient and biking is allowed on a reasonable number of roads. Better homecare management can support the efficient use of resources of health care institutions, high-quality home care and aspirations towards livable communities and sustainable development.

Keywords: home care; sustainable and efficient transport; algorithm in an urban environment; sustainable communities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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