Recent planning approaches and mobility concepts for home health care services in Austria – A review

Home health care (HHC) services are faced with a rising demand in Austria. This is due to an increased life expectancy, changing family structures, and the trend to grow old at home. The percentage of their working time that is spent by the HHC staff for travelling from one client to the next one reaches 30% and even more in some rural areas. Changing the assignment of HHC staff to clients and the sequence of visits can lead to major reductions in the travel distances, and therefore, to more sustainable solutions. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview on the logistical planning of HHC services in Austria. In order to meet the future requirements, it is important to analyze different mobility concepts for the HHC staff and to provide tailored solution approaches for routing and scheduling. The reader learns about the current HHC situation in Austria, the logistical requirements for planning these services, possible mobility concepts for the HHC staff, and potential threats for HHC operations. The developed solution methods are presented in brief and the main findings are highlighted and discussed. The paper concludes with an outlook on potential future research paths in HHC routing and scheduling.