Abstract
The Nurse Scheduling Problem can be simply defined as assigning a series of shift sequences (schedules) to several nurses over a planning horizon according to some constraints and preferences. The inherent benefits of having higher-quality and more flexible schedules are a reduction in outsourcing costs and an increase of job satisfaction in health organizations. In this paper, we present a novel systematic hybrid algorithm, which combines Integer Programming (IP) and Constraint Programming (CP) to efficiently solve highly-constrained Nurse Scheduling Problems. Our focus is to exploit the problem-specific information to improve the performance of the algorithm, and therefore obtain high-quality solutions as well as strong lower bounds. We test our algorithm based on some real-world benchmark instances. Very competitive results are reported compared to the state-of-the-art algorithms from the recent literature, showing that the proposed algorithm is able to solve a wide variety of real-world instances with different complex structures.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Mista 2015 Proceedings of the 7th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling Conference |
Subtitle of host publication | Theory and Applications |
Editors | Zdenek Hanzálek, Graham Kendall, Barry McCollum, Premysl Šůcha |
Place of Publication | Prague, Czech Republic |
Pages | 429-442 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Publication status | Published - 25 Aug 2015 |
Event | 7th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling Conference: Theory and Applications - Marriot, Prague, Czech Republic Duration: 25 Aug 2015 → 28 Aug 2015 http://www.schedulingconference.org/ |
Publication series
Name | Proceedings of the Multidisciplinary International Conference on Scheduling: Theory and Applications |
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Publisher | MISTA |
ISSN (Electronic) | 2305-249X |
Conference
Conference | 7th Multidisciplinary International Scheduling Conference |
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Abbreviated title | MISTA 2015 |
Country/Territory | Czech Republic |
City | Prague |
Period | 25/08/15 → 28/08/15 |
Internet address |
Keywords
- nurse scheduling program
- shift sequences
- planning horizon
- systematic hybrid algorithm
- integer programming
- constraint programming