A bi-objective model for Cancer hospitals’ location and cancer patients’ allocation in Iran

Cancer curing is a costly problem for either healthcare systems and patients in many countries. Cancer hospitals can provide all needed services simultaneously and increase cancer patients’ satisfaction by decreasing fatigue and stress. In this paper, the constructing efficient cancer hospitals in proper locations and also the allocating cancer patients to the nearest destination are considered to prevent the waste of money and cancer patients’ medical travelling problems.

A bi-objective mixed-integer linear mathematical model is developed to locate the cancer hospitals in candidate regions and allocate the cancer patients to proper destinations. The first objective minimises the total costs, consisting of cancer hospital construction costs and the cancer patients’ travelling-accommodation costs. The secondary one maximises the bed-capacity efficiency via minimising the overplus of bed-capacity. The model is solved by applying optimality grade approach on the data forecasted for Iran provinces in 2040. The linear regression models are fitted to predict the number of cancer new cases in Iran provinces until 2040.

Model’s solving results show that twenty-six provinces are selected to construct at least one cancer hospital there, and provinces with low density of cancer patients’ population such as Ilam and Markazi are not opted as destinations.

To conclude, the results of proposed model’s solving represents that most provinces of Iran need at least one cancer hospital in next two decades. This verifys the need for having a strategic planning in Iran’s cancer hospital network at present.