A heuristic approach to the task planning problem in a home care business | JoVE Visualize

A heuristic approach to the task planning problem in a home care business

Isabel Méndez-Fernández¹, Silvia Lorenzo-Freire², Ignacio García-Jurado²

¹MODES Research Group, Department of Mathematics and CITIC, Faculty of Computer Science, University of A Coruña, Campus de Elviña, 15071, A Coruña, Spain. isabel.mendez.fernandez@udc.es.

Health Care Management Science|July 27, 2020

View abstract on PubMed

Summary

This study introduces a heuristic algorithm for optimizing home care caregiver scheduling. The algorithm efficiently balances user needs, travel times, and continuity of care, providing practical solutions for complex scheduling challenges.

Area of Science:

Operations Research
Healthcare Management
Computer Science

Background:

Home care businesses face complex caregiver scheduling challenges.
Optimizing weekly caregiver plans involves numerous variables including user preferences, service times, travel, and continuity of care.
Current scheduling methods can be time-consuming and difficult to manage for large-scale operations.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop an efficient method for solving the home care task scheduling problem.
To address the complexities of route planning and employee task planning simultaneously.
To provide a scalable solution for real-world home care business scheduling needs.

Main Methods:

Integer linear programming was used to model the task scheduling problem.
A heuristic algorithm based on simulated annealing was designed for large-scale instances.
Algorithm performance was validated against integer linear programming on smaller problems and through a case study.

Main Results:

The heuristic algorithm effectively generates weekly caregiver schedules.
The proposed algorithm provides comparable solutions to integer linear programming for smaller problem sizes.
A case study demonstrated the algorithm's capability to solve realistic, large-scale instances.

Conclusions:

The simulated annealing-based heuristic algorithm offers an efficient and practical solution for home care task scheduling.
This approach successfully addresses the need for optimized caregiver assignments while considering critical factors like travel time and continuity of care.
The developed methodology can significantly improve the operational efficiency of home care businesses.