عليرضا بخشي فر

With the rapidly aging population and an increasing preference among elderly people and other groups of people for receiving care in their own homes, the demand for home healthcare centers has become more critical than ever before. These specialized centers provide essential medical services and care in a familiar and comfortable setting, allowing patients to remain in their own homes while receiving necessary treatment and support. By offering care in this manner, home healthcare centers help to alleviate the burden on hospitals and clinics, reducing overcrowding and easing the strain on resources. This is particularly crucial during times of crisis, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic, where effective resource management and minimizing crowding in healthcare facilities became paramount concerns. Home healthcare centers offer a wide range of diverse and specialized services tailored to meet the unique needs of each individual patient. By delivering these services directly to patients' homes, these centers significantly enhance the quality of life for their customers, allowing them to maintain their independence and dignity while receiving necessary care. Moreover, this approach contributes to overall healthcare system efficiency by reducing unnecessary hospital admissions and freeing up resources for more acute cases. Recognizing the importance and complexity of home healthcare operations, this study aims to address the challenges faced by these centers in routing and scheduling their services. The research is motivated by real-world considerations and constraints, such as the limited availability of caregivers, the need for timely delivery of biological samples, and the inherent uncertainties associated with travel times and service durations. To tackle these issues, we propose a robust optimization model that takes into account these various factors and constraints. This study’s model utilizes mixed-integer programming techniques to develop exact solutions for the routing and scheduling problems faced by home healthcare centers. Additionallya heurisitc algorithm designed to efficiently find near-optimal solutions, recognizing that exact solutions may not always be feasible or necessary in practical applications. To eva‎luate the performance and effectiveness of both our model and algorithm, we conduct extensive numerical experiments using the well-established Solomon benchmark datasets and simulations. Furthermore, we extend our investigation to include the dynamic version of the problem, which allows us to assess the system's adaptability and responsiveness to changes in real-time. This aspect is crucial for home healthcare centers, as they often need to adjust their schedules and routes in response to unexpected events, such as patient emergencies or caregiver availability changes. By incorporating this dynamic element into our study, we aim to provide a more comprehensive and practical solution for home healthcare centers, enabling them to optimize their operations and deliver high-quality care efficiently and effectively.

مراكز سلامت خانگي , مسيريابي , زمانبندي , بهينه سازي استوار , راه حل ابتكاري , تقاضاي پويا

Home Healthcare , Routing , Scheduling , Robust Optimization , Heuristics , Dynamic Demand

Alireza Bakhshifar

Ahmad Makui