Urbani izziv Volume 28, No. 1, June 2017
: 147-156
(Articles)
UDK: 364-783.2”405”:316.346.32-053.9(439)
doi: 10.5379/urbani-izziv-en-2017-28-01-006
Author
Norina SZANDER
MEDIFAS: Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, Vrtojba, Slovenia, and Faculty of Organisation Studies in Novo mesto, Novo mesto, Slovenia
norina.szander@medifas.net
Lorenzo ROS-MCDONNELL
Business Engineering Research Group, Universidad Politécnica Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain, and MEDIFAS, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, Vrtojba, Slovenia
lorenzo.ros@upct.es
Marija BOGATAJ
MEDIFAS: Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, Vrtojba, Slovenia, and Faculty of Organisation Studies in Novo mesto, Novo mesto, Slovenia
marija.bogataj@guest.arnes.si
Title
Spatial dispersion of housing units as an important factor influencing long-term care operational costs
Abstract
Over 90% of seniors prefer to age in place, which is an idea supported by the European semesters on long-term care strategic plans for member states, but they do not have the necessary innovation to improve the living of the elderly in a properly built environment with sustainable financing. The spatial dispersion of housing and density in a functional area should be particularly taken into consideration by facilities’ managers and medical care institutions offering housing, healthcare and other services for the elderly in planning the built environment and other facilities for seniors because the costs of logistics (material transport, nurse workload, costs of other service providers, and transport of seniors in the case of daily programmes) greatly depend on it. Using data from a care centre in a Hungarian municipality, we simulated and optimised home healthcare routing and scheduling in various scenarios of spatial dispersion and changing density of clients. We modelled the rounds of caregivers visiting seniors in homecare as a multiple travelling salesman problem, and the solutions show the necessary workforce and service time requirements. The tool that enabled us to study the outputs of scenarios might help professionals forecast and plan for coming changes in the costs of nursing services caused by the growing number of seniors that may need help in maintaining their independence as long as possible, taking into account that the density and dispersion of households are also changing.
Key Words
housing, long-term care, service scheduling, spatial dispersion, functional region