A memetic algorithm for a home health care routing and scheduling problem

This work addresses a home health care routing and scheduling problem with time window and synchronization constraints. Each patient is associated with a period of availability according to their preferences while some visits may require the presence of two staff members simultaneously, which requires the synchronization of two visits. In this paper, the problem is studied with hard and soft patients time window and synchronization constraints. We developed a mixed integer programming model and a memetic algorithm featuring two original crossover operators. Experiments are conducted on benchmark instances from the literature as well as new instances based on real life data from a home health care provider in France. The results highlight the efficiency of the memetic algorithm since it provides great results while being flexible to the instance type. Indeed, the memetic algorithm is efficient whether the problem is studied with hard or soft time window and synchronization constraints, various caregivers qualification or several home health care offices.