Title: A partial coverage hierarchical location allocation model for health services

Authors: Orhan Karasakal; Esra Karasakal; Özgün Töreyen

Addresses: Industrial Engineering Department, Çankaya University, 06790 Ankara, Turkey ' Industrial Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University, 06800 Ankara, Turkey ' Ango AI, Ankara TR Branch, Department of Operations, 06510 Ankara, Turkey

Abstract: We consider a hierarchical maximal covering location problem (HMCLP) to locate health centres and hospitals so that the maximum demand is covered by two levels of services in a successively inclusive hierarchy. We extend the HMCLP by introducing the partial coverage and a new definition of the referral. The proposed model may enable an informed decision on the healthcare system when dynamic adaptation is required, such as a COVID-19 pandemic. We define the referral as coverage of health centres by hospitals. A hospital may also cover demand through referral. The proposed model is solved optimally for small problems. For large problems, we propose a customised genetic algorithm. Computational study shows that the GA performs well, and the partial coverage substantially affects the optimal solutions. [Submitted: 20 January 2021; Accepted: 15 January 2022]

Keywords: hierarchical maximal covering location problem; partial coverage; gradual coverage; referral; heuristics; genetic algorithm.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIE.2023.127742

European Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2023 Vol.17 No.1, pp.115 - 147

Received: 20 Jan 2021
Accepted: 15 Jan 2022
Published online: 15 Dec 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article