The location, dimensioning and districting problem of community houses in Lombardy, Italy

Community Houses (CHs) are new entities in the Italian Healthcare Ser- vice, envisaged to provide proximity care to citizens. CHs are part of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, within the NextGenerationEU scheme [1]. In this work, we focus on the location, districting, and dimensioning of CHs in Lombardy, Italy. We propose a tool that provides a systematic approach to their planning. It is based on a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model that considers vari- ous factors such as demand, accessibility, and equity to identify the optimal location, dimensioning, and districting of CHs. The tool uses a data-driven approach that lever- ages on information on healthcare service provision, enriched with demographic and geographic data. The tool is meant to provide stakeholders with a decision-support platform, enabling them to understand the trade-offs between different options and make informed decisions. The tool was tested on real data from a representative area, the Province of Brescia. It was chosen because it spans a variety of typically Italian environments, including urban, rural, and alpine ones. The results validated the adequacy of the proposed approach.