A TWO-STAGE SOLUTION APPROACH FOR THE LARGE-SCALE HOME HEALTHCARE ROUTEING AND SCHEDULING PROBLEM

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to introduce a two-stage solution approach for a large-scale home healthcare routeing and scheduling problem (HHCRSP). In the first part of the two-stage solution approach, a cluster-assign algorithm is employed, based on the home location and the time to obtain feasible clusters. In the second stage, using these clusters, route construction heuristics start to create schedules and routes, taking the side constraints of the model into consideration. Using the novelty of this two-stage solution approach, higher diversification is achieved with a series of newly-developed cross movement strategies. The computational results show that our solution approach offers certain advantages, such as an increase in the efficient use of human resources, and a decrease in the working time of nurses.