Recursive logic-based Benders' decomposition for multi-mode outpatient scheduling

We demonstrate the efficiency of the overall approach through a case study from a gastroenterology clinic at the University Hospital of Northern Norway, using real life data. The computational results show that the recursive, three-level, decomposition solves the most complex real life test instances to optimality in less than 5 minutes. The method drastically outperforms the corresponding two-level decomposition, which fails to solve all but one of these test instances within the one hour time limit.