A healthcare network design model with mobile hospitals for disaster preparedness: A case study for Istanbul earthquake

Abstract

Providing efficient healthcare service is critical in a disaster situation and mobile hospitals can be utilized for this purpose. We introduce a network design model considering the location and relocation decisions of mobile hospitals using a two-stage stochastic programming model with various disaster scenarios. This problem addresses critical transportation and logistics decisions of governments and relief organizations in designing health care networks for disaster preparedness. We apply our models to a real life case study for an expected earthquake in Istanbul and extract several managerial insights. Numerical experiments demonstrate that mobile hospitals can provide significant improvements in healthcare service.