Stochastic Home Care Transportation with Dynamically Prioritized Patients: An Integrated Facility location, Fleet sizing, and routing Approach

Today, Home Health Care (HHC) providers offer a diverse range of care services, including clinical, paramedical, and community care services, to cater to patients suffering from various ailments, injuries, and postoperative complications (Nikzad et al., 2021). These services are particularly beneficial for specific segments of society, such as individuals with disabilities and isolated vulnerable citizens. During pandemic situations such as COVID-19, such services are even more important to those populations who may adhere to social distancing measures and are required to limit unnecessary contacts (Yadav and Tanksale, 2022). Consequently, HHC has emerged as one of the fastest-growing industries globally. For example, in the United States, the national spending on HHC reached an impressive $113.5 billion in 2019, marking a substantial annual increase of 7.7% (Martin et al., 2021). Meanwhile, the Australian government recently unveiled a transformative aged care reform package worth $17.7 billion.