Home Healthcare: The Costly Planning Errors (and How to Avoid Them)

Published on 10 April 2025 • Reading time: 7 min read

Nurses, healthcare assistant (HCA), physiotherapists… Every day in the field is like a race against time. And yet, despite punctual patients and dedicated carers, delays, unforeseen absences and chronic fatigue continue to increase. The culprit? Often invisible: ineffective planning that wastes precious time.

Good news: you can take back control. What if you could move away from an organisation that’s been forced upon you to one that’s optimised, smooth and perfectly adapted to your needs?

Table of contents:

• Planning errors that are costly… both in human and logistics terms
• Why are these errors still occurring in 2025?
• Optimising routes: practical, effective solutions
• Optimisation also means more time for human care
• The future of home healthcare routes: AI and technology for optimisation

Planning errors that are costly… both in human and logistics terms

Poor management of time and priorities

Prioritising care correctly is essential. It’s more than just a question of organisation, it’s a necessity for the health and safety of your patients. Imagine starting your routes with a patient who needs a simple dressing, while another is waiting for a fasting blood test. What happens? You risk compromising the quality of the medical procedure.

Certain types of care require treatment at specific times:

• Medications at set times (e.g. insulin injections).
• Medical monitoring (e.g. blood pressure or blood sugar tests at fixed times).
• Procedures requiring fasting (e.g. blood tests, specific examinations).

These imperatives need to be integrated intelligently into your planning, which is not always easy.

❌ Common errors: Scheduling non-urgent visits before critical care, grouping distant patients together at unsuitable times… So many precious hours wasted.

Underestimated travel times

Planning a route involves more than simply lining up appointments. It’s about anticipating journeys, their contingencies and constraints, to improve your operational efficiency. If you don’t take sufficient account of your travel time, delays are inevitable. Traffic jams, the weather, accidents… these are all factors that lengthen your journeys.

A perfect route on paper can become a nightmare on the ground.

• In rural areas: Long journeys, poorly signposted roads.
• In urban areas: Finding a parking space can easily become a headache.

As Laurent Hamza, Team Manager at Help Air à Domicile, points out: “Although the technicians have a good knowledge of their area of work, they sometimes scheduled appointments that were too far apart geographically, which had a significant impact on operational costs and travel time.”

With no room for manoeuvre between appointments, you’re going to accumulate delays throughout the day.

Poor coordination between carers and patients

Your daily routine is full of the unexpected: last-minute cancellations, absent patients, medical emergencies… all grains of sand that can disrupt a well-oiled machine.

❌ Common errors:

• Double assignment: Two carers scheduled for the same patient by mistake.
• Last minute cancellation: The patient forgets to call or cancels after you have left.
• Absent patient: You arrive to find that the patient has gone out or has not heard the doorbell.

In short, your schedule is quickly turned upside down, disrupting your entire day.

Why are these errors still occurring in 2025?

Unsuitable tools

Planning your routes with unsuitable tools is like trying to treat people with outdated equipment. Yet Excel and even paper are still commonplace in many home healthcare facilities.

These methods may seem practical, but in reality they are rigid, time-consuming and error-prone. The main limitations:

• Manual input errors: A wrongly entered figure, a forgotten line… and your whole route is disorganised.
• Lack of real-time connection: You can’t react quickly to last-minute cancellations or medical emergencies.
• Rigid tools: Adjusting a schedule on a spreadsheet or notebook takes time, when every minute counts.

Lack of route planning software

Despite the boom in new technologies, many teams are still not using route planning software, which could transform their day-to-day work. But why are these tools still so little used?

• Lack of information: Some organisations are simply unaware of the existence of these solutions or underestimate their effectiveness.
• Fear of cost: Investing in specialised software can seem expensive. Some prefer free but limited alternatives.
• Ingrained habits: Switching from a traditional method to a digital tool requires adaptation, which can be discouraging.

However, a good home healthcare management system can automatically calculate the best routes, taking into account the constraints on the ground (accessibility, traffic, distances), the specific needs of patients (precise times, priority emergencies, regular follow-up) and the workload of healthcare professionals (rest time, number of visits per day, availability).

Lack of knowledge of best practice

The problem is not limited to inappropriate tools or the lack of high-performance software. It is also linked to a lack of knowledge of best planning practices.

• Poor prioritisation of visits: Non-urgent care performed before critical interventions.
• Inefficient routes: Geographical areas poorly grouped, routes poorly optimised.
• Poor anticipation of unforeseen events: No room for manoeuvre, difficulty in reacting to cancellations or emergencies.

Optimising routes: practical, effective solutions

Opt for route optimisation software: AntsRoute, your everyday ally

You’ve heard of poorly organised routes: accumulated delays, interminable journeys, unsatisfied patients… And what if you could say goodbye to these hassles?

With a route optimisation tool like AntsRoute, you gain in precision, flexibility and peace of mind.

What AntsRoute has to offer:

• ✅ Generate balanced routes in just a few clicks. No more hours wasted on spreadsheets that ignore the realities of the field.
• ✅ Reduce the number of kilometres travelled (and therefore costs). Optimised journeys mean savings in fuel, time and energy.
• ✅ Save precious time: Every minute saved on the road is another minute to devote to care.

Our aim? To simplify your life so that you can concentrate on what’s most important: your patients. According to GHEMM (Hospital Group in Meurthe-et-Moselle, France), using AntsRoute has saved 600% of time. Schedules that used to take 1.5 hours are now completed in just 5 to 10 minutes.

Synchronise teams using collaborative tools

Fluid communication is essential for a successful route. Caregivers, coordinators, patients… everyone needs to be able to communicate effectively: updating a schedule, announcing a cancellation or approving a visit.

AntsRoute makes coordination child’s play thanks to its collaborative tools:

• ✅ Shared calendar: A single schedule, updated in real time, accessible to everyone.
• ✅ Automatic notifications: No more lengthy calls, every change is immediately notified to the teams concerned.
• ✅ Digital proof of service: Quick validation of works, comments on the care provided or even photos.

The result? Better care coordination, fewer communication errors and precious time saved on a daily basis.

Integrate unexpected events management right from the planning stage

The unexpected is part of your daily routine and even the best planning cannot avoid it, but it can manage it effectively.

Flexibility becomes your best asset.

• ✅ Integrated safety margin: Safety time slots to absorb delays without impacting the whole day.
• ✅ Dynamic replanning: Your itinerary adjusts instantly in the event of a cancellation or emergency.
• ✅ Automatic surrogate caregiver assignment: If a caregiver is unavailable, the route is instantly reassigned to avoid any delays.

Optimisation also means more time for human care

Fewer journeys, more care

Optimising your routes means more than just improving geolocation. It means digitising your home healthcare to simplify your journeys and free up precious time for your patients. Keeping to the scheduled times means boosting patient confidence and satisfaction. Punctual, reliable service inspires professionalism and loyalty.

Reducing journeys also means offering quality home healthcare. Less rushing, more listening, better availability for each patient.

Less stressed, better organised caregivers

Optimising your routes doesn’t just mean improving logistics. It also means transforming your working conditions. A balanced schedule means greater peace of mind, efficiency and job satisfaction.

• ✅ Less stress: No more endless journeys, missed appointments or overloaded schedules.
• ✅ Greater job satisfaction: A structured timetable means you can concentrate fully on what’s most important: caring for people.
• ✅ Greater loyalty: Well-organised routes relieve pressure and promote team stability.

More patients being treated

Intelligent planning does more than just reduce journeys or simplify schedules. It enables you to maximise your resources while preserving the quality of care.

The result? More patients without increasing staff numbers or compromising quality. For example, FBP Medical has saved “2 to 3 operations per day”, or around “45 minutes […] per day and per delivery person”.

The future of home healthcare routes: AI and technology for optimisation

New technologies are redefining home healthcare services thanks to artificial intelligence in healthcare and planning algorithms.

• Proactive prediction: AI learns continuously, anticipating patients’ needs and suggesting the best itineraries even before requests arise.
• IoT devices: Tracking watches, health sensors, medical devices… This real-time data facilitates immediate adjustments.
• Personalised care: Tailor-made schedules that take into account medical history, current needs and urgent priorities.

Home healthcare requires precise organisation. It’s no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity if you want to offer humane, efficient and personalised care. With AntsRoute, you can regain control, improve your teams’ day-to-day work and offer every patient the best possible service.

Want to try it out? Take advantage of a 7-day free trial on AntsRoute. Try it, compare it, adopt it!