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Optimal allocation of urban nuclei to hospital birth centres in a geographical region

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Advanced Decision Making Methods Applied to Health Care

Part of the book series: International Series in Operations Research & Management Science ((ISOR,volume 173))

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Abstract

We consider a geographical region with a three-tiered neonatal care network, which includes birth centres for supplying basic assistance for delivery, neonatal care and neonatal intensive care, with a design such that all higher-level centres also provide the lower levels of assistance. The region’s population is distributed in urban nuclei, the needs of which — in terms of assistance related to birth and newborn — are established on the basis of statistical analyses. Every mother-to-be is admitted to a birth centre serving the level corresponding to the needs of her pregnancy. Newborn transfers from a lower- to a higher-level centre are feasible in the event of unforeseen health issues. In this chapter we allocate urban nuclei to birth centres for what concerns all-level admissions, also allocating lower-level centres to suitable upper-level centres for any transfers, with a view to minimising the inconvenience due to the distances involved without overloading any centres; we use the results obtained for suitably resizing the network to further improve its efficiency. The allocation model is a linear program solved using GAMS algebraic language and Cplex solver. An actual application was considered.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Epidemiology and Community Medicine Unit, Department of Paediatrics, University of Padova, Via Giustiniani 3, 35128, Padova, Italy

    Paola Facchin, Anna Ferrante & Elena Rizzato

  2. Department of Management and Engineering, University of Padova, Stradella San Nicola 3, 36100, Vicenza, Italy

    Giorgio Romanin-Jacur & Laura Salmaso

Authors
  1. Paola Facchin
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  2. Anna Ferrante
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  3. Elena Rizzato
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  4. Giorgio Romanin-Jacur
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  5. Laura Salmaso
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giorgio Romanin-Jacur .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods (DIEM), University of Genova, Italy

    Elena Tànfani  & Angela Testi  & 

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Facchin, P., Ferrante, A., Rizzato, E., Romanin-Jacur, G., Salmaso, L. (2012). Optimal allocation of urban nuclei to hospital birth centres in a geographical region. In: Tànfani, E., Testi, A. (eds) Advanced Decision Making Methods Applied to Health Care. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, vol 173. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2321-5_7

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