2022-10-12

Author

Witek ten Hove

HCP:

  • Writing session

Taken from Grieco, Utley, and Crowe (2021)

Main topic: “Determining the optimal team size and composition in Home Care Service organizations using data driven insights and Operations Research methodologies.”

  • To what extend is continuity of care feasible?

  • What are the challenges for HCS-providers in balancing demand and supply?

  • Which rules of thumb can be suggested for managing team size and composition?

    • Given demand, how many employees should be scheduled, e.g. \(s = a + \beta * \sqrt{a}\)
Chapter Sub Notes
  1. Insights in demand for care services

  1. Type of care service and associates qualification level

  2. Totals and variability

  3. Patterns weekly / daily

  1. Demand vs supply

  1. Variance

  2. Seasonality

    • E.g. do summer dips coincide?

  1. Continuity of service

  1. Frequency of demand

    • E.g. # of times per week (per type of care)

  2. Scopes of employment

    • E.g. # of hours per week

Model: ILP

  • E.g. Minimize # different nurses per client
  1. Scale / size teams

  1. What is the optimal team size?

    1. E.g. Taking into account absenteeism / holidays

  2. How sensitive is team size to changes in certain variables and what are effects on quality of care)?

  3. What are possible scenario’s for the future?

  • Model: Erlang C

    • E.g. With group arrivals
    • Team size is regulated by merging or splitting teams
    • De Bruin et al. (2010)

Suggestions: Compare 1B (demand) with 2A (supply)

References

De Bruin, Arnoud M, René Bekker, Lillian Van Zanten, and GM Koole. 2010. “Dimensioning Hospital Wards Using the Erlang Loss Model.” Annals of Operations Research 178 (1): 23–43.
Grieco, Luca, Martin Utley, and Sonya Crowe. 2021. “Operational Research Applied to Decisions in Home Health Care: A Systematic Literature Review.” Journal of the Operational Research Society 72 (9): 1960–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/01605682.2020.1750311.