Toward Homecare Logistics 5.0: A Systematic Literature Review

The increased demand for homecare services – driven by the ageing population and the significance of homecare during the Covid-19 pandemic – has led to a need for greater rationalisation and organisation of the available resources, which must increasingly tend towards more resilient, sustainable, and human-centred approaches, collectively identified as healthcare 5.0. The current paper aims to comprehend, through a review of relevant literature, the state of the research regarding homecare logistics concerning the pillars of healthcare 5.0. The literature review shows that healthcare 5.0 pillars in homecare services are little considered. Only environmental sustainability is addressed, while resilience and human-centricity are little investigated. Additionally, “human-centred” is considered a synonym of “patient-centred”. However, given the impact of the covid pandemic on healthcare operators, it is necessary to consider workforce wellbeing. Only a few papers analysed human factors related to the operators, such as the workload or skills requirements. Other factors, such as stress, time pressure, and fatigue, are not considered. To complete the analysis of this sector from the perspective of healthcare 5.0, future research should include resilience considerations to demand increases and human-centred process design to improve the operators’ well-being.