Re-envisioning home healthcare planning through sustainability: An operations research review

Ageing populations, shrinking family structures, and economic considerations are accelerating the global need for effective home healthcare (HHC) systems. Realising the full benefits of HHC requires careful attention to sustainability considerations. Consequently, sustainable HHC planning has gained increasing prominence within the operations research literature. This review provides a structured, sustainability-oriented synthesis of HHC planning models. The literature is analysed across three dimensions: (i) resource limitations, service design complexity, uncertainty and disruptions as barriers to sustainability; (ii) enablers of sustainability proposed to address these challenges; and (iii) the sustainability aspects influenced by the enablers’ implementation. The enablers and dimensions are examined to determine how they have been incorporated into mathematical formulations in previous studies. Based on this analysis, a general modelling framework is developed that links decision variables, objective functions, and constraints to corresponding sustainability outcomes. By introducing a unifying terminology and modelling structure, the review facilitates systematic comparison across diverse approaches and uncovers gaps in the explicit integration of sustainability into HHC planning. The insights gathered offer a foundation for operations research scholars to identify emerging trends and promising directions for future research, ultimately supporting more effective progress towards sustainability goals in HHC systems.