Population aging is a global challenge, leading to increased demand for healthcare and social services for the elderly. Home Health Care (HHC) emerges as a vital solution, specifically designed to serve this population segment. Given the surging demand for HHC, it's essential to coordinate and regulate caregiver allocation efficiently. This is crucial for both budget-optimized planning and ensuring the delivery of high-quality care. This research addresses a key question faced by home health agencies (HHAs): "How can caregiver allocation be optimized, especially when caregivers prefer flexibility in their visiting sequences?". While earlier studies proposed rigid visiting sequences, our study introduces a decision support framework that allocates caregivers through a hybrid method that considers the flexibility in visiting sequences and aims to reduce travel mileage, increase the number of visits per planning period, and maintain the continuity of care - a critical metric for patient satisfaction. Utilizing data from an HHA in Tennessee, United States, our approach led to an impressive reduction in average travel mileage (up to 42% depending on discipline) without imposing restrictions on caregivers. Furthermore, the proposed framework is used for caregivers' supply analysis to provide valuable insights into caregiver resource management.

翻译：人口老龄化是一项全球性挑战，导致老年人医疗和社会服务需求日益增长。家庭医疗护理作为一种重要解决方案，专门服务于这一人群。随着家庭医疗护理需求激增，高效协调和规范护理人员配置至关重要，这不仅关乎预算优化规划，也影响高质量护理的保障。本研究聚焦家庭护理机构面临的关键问题："如何在护理人员偏好访问顺序灵活性的前提下，优化人员配置？"既往研究多采用固定访问顺序模式，而本研究提出一种混合方法的决策支持框架，该框架兼顾访问顺序灵活性，旨在降低出行里程、增加规划周期内的访问频次，并维持护理连续性——这是患者满意度的重要指标。基于美国田纳西州一家家庭护理机构的实际数据，本方法在不限制护理人员的前提下，实现了平均出行里程的显著缩减（根据不同专业领域最高达42%）。此外，该框架还用于护理人员供给分析，为人员资源管理提供关键洞察。