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A single nurse routing and scheduling problem for home-based chemotherapy and infusion services

Author

Listed:
  • Fernando, Vishmi
  • Ozlen, Melih
  • Taheri, Sona

Abstract

Home health care has expanded to include infusion treatments for chemotherapy and other diseases requiring periodic infusions. Scheduling these appointments is crucial and complex due to the urgency of treatment and their unique cyclic patterns over several months. This complexity arises because adding a new patient affects not only the immediate schedule but also has long-term implications. This paper presents a mathematical model for a single nurse routing and scheduling problem for home-based chemotherapy and infusion services. The aim is to maximise the number of priority-weighted new chemotherapy and infusion patients incorporated into the system by optimising the route and schedule for a single nurse, considering the cyclical nature of infusion treatments with an extended planning horizon. A novel matheuristic approach, the Temporal Decomposition and Filtering based Matheuristic (TDFM), is introduced to address this large-scale problem. Computational experiments on practical-sized problems demonstrate that the proposed solution approach, combined with commercially available solvers, is able to achieve high-quality solutions within a useful timeframe.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernando, Vishmi & Ozlen, Melih & Taheri, Sona, 2026. "A single nurse routing and scheduling problem for home-based chemotherapy and infusion services," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 328(3), pages 785-796.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:328:y:2026:i:3:p:785-796
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2025.07.038
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    References listed on IDEAS

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