Spatial resource and demand allocation in emergency services and hospital-based acute healthcare
PhD candidate: Florentina Hager
In recent years, widespread shortages of staff, material, and financial resources have increasingly affected not only production and logistics systems but also public services such as emergency services and hospital-based acute healthcare. At the same time, demand for these services continues to rise due to demographic change and climate-related impacts, further intensifying the challenge of maintaining adequate service levels. Because these systems provide time-critical interventions, unmet demand can have severe consequences, making the efficient use of available resources essential. While technological innovations promise to improve operational efficiency, their practical impact is often limited by technical, ethical, and regulatory barriers. An alternative approach is to improve the spatial alignment of supply and demand by reallocating resources to areas of high demand or by directing demand to locations with available capacity.
This thesis investigates spatial resource and demand allocation strategies in emergency services and hospital-based acute healthcare. The analysis considers both sudden demand surges caused by disasters and persistent capacity constraints in daily operations. Across three sub-projects in Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada, the thesis develops and applies mathematical models and heuristic algorithms to support spatial allocation decisions and to quantify the potential benefits of improved spatial alignment between resources and demand.
External supervisor: Prof. Dr. Melanie Reuter-Oppermann (Technische Hochschule Würzburg-Schweinfurt)