medical staff planning in field hospital operations
The deployment of field hospitals is essential in crisis situations caused by natural disasters or humanitarian emergencies, as it provides timely access to medical care for vulnerable populations. Achieving an effective deployment requires careful planning of healthcare personnel, since its success depends on balancing the needs and constraints of three main stakeholders: the deploying agency, which must manage operational and logistical costs; healthcare volunteers, whose participation is constrained by their availability over time; and the final users, whose well-being depends on the quality, training, and experience of the deployed staff. Key aspects in this planning process include transportation costs—such as flight expenses with potential group discounts above a certain number of passengers—the varying availability of healthcare professionals across different time periods (from full to partial or no availability), and the assessment of professional merits through qualification scores.
In (Martín-Campo et al., 2025), a linear optimization model is presented to support healthcare staff planning for the deployment of the START field hospital operated by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). The problem is addressed within a multicriteria decision-making framework that combines economic, operational, and quality-related considerations, allowing for a systematic and realistic allocation of personnel. The model results, based on the deployment of the START hospital following the 2023 earthquake in Turkey, have been validated using publicly available data reported in (Martin-Campo et al., 2024).
