A compact model for the home healthcare routing and scheduling problem

Home healthcare has become more and more central in the last decades, due to the advantages it can bring to both healthcare institutions and patients. Planning activities in this context, however, presents significant challenges related to route planning and mutual synchronization of caregivers.In t...

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Main Authors: Roberto Montemanni, Sara Ceschia, Andrea Schaerf
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-01-01
Series:EURO Journal on Computational Optimization
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2192440624000182
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author Roberto Montemanni
Sara Ceschia
Andrea Schaerf
author_facet Roberto Montemanni
Sara Ceschia
Andrea Schaerf
author_sort Roberto Montemanni
collection DOAJ
description Home healthcare has become more and more central in the last decades, due to the advantages it can bring to both healthcare institutions and patients. Planning activities in this context, however, presents significant challenges related to route planning and mutual synchronization of caregivers.In this paper we propose a new compact model for the combined optimization of scheduling (of the activities) and routing (of the caregivers) characterized by fewer variables and constraints when compared with the models previously available in the literature. The new model is solved by a constraint programming solver and compared experimentally with the exact and metaheuristic approaches available in the literature on the common datasets adopted by the community. The results show that the new model provides improved lower bounds for the vast majority of the instances, while producing at the same time high quality heuristic solutions, comparable to those of tailored metaheuristics, for small/medium size instances.
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spelling doaj-art-00169518cfe449d18a9aaa8d31c201692025-08-20T02:21:47ZengElsevierEURO Journal on Computational Optimization2192-44062025-01-011310010110.1016/j.ejco.2024.100101A compact model for the home healthcare routing and scheduling problemRoberto Montemanni0Sara Ceschia1Andrea Schaerf2Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Amendola, 2, I-42122 Reggio Emilia, Italy; Corresponding author.Polytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Udine, Via delle Scienze 206, I-33100 Udine, ItalyPolytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture, University of Udine, Via delle Scienze 206, I-33100 Udine, ItalyHome healthcare has become more and more central in the last decades, due to the advantages it can bring to both healthcare institutions and patients. Planning activities in this context, however, presents significant challenges related to route planning and mutual synchronization of caregivers.In this paper we propose a new compact model for the combined optimization of scheduling (of the activities) and routing (of the caregivers) characterized by fewer variables and constraints when compared with the models previously available in the literature. The new model is solved by a constraint programming solver and compared experimentally with the exact and metaheuristic approaches available in the literature on the common datasets adopted by the community. The results show that the new model provides improved lower bounds for the vast majority of the instances, while producing at the same time high quality heuristic solutions, comparable to those of tailored metaheuristics, for small/medium size instances.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2192440624000182Home healthcareConstraint programmingLower boundsUpper bounds
spellingShingle Roberto Montemanni
Sara Ceschia
Andrea Schaerf
A compact model for the home healthcare routing and scheduling problem
EURO Journal on Computational Optimization
Home healthcare
Constraint programming
Lower bounds
Upper bounds
title A compact model for the home healthcare routing and scheduling problem
title_full A compact model for the home healthcare routing and scheduling problem
title_fullStr A compact model for the home healthcare routing and scheduling problem
title_full_unstemmed A compact model for the home healthcare routing and scheduling problem
title_short A compact model for the home healthcare routing and scheduling problem
title_sort compact model for the home healthcare routing and scheduling problem
topic Home healthcare
Constraint programming
Lower bounds
Upper bounds
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2192440624000182
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