A Flexible Mixed Integer Programming framework for Nurse Scheduling

In this paper, a nurse-scheduling model is developed using mixed integer programming model. It is deployed to a general care ward to replace and automate the current manual approach for scheduling. The developed model differs from other similar studies in that it optimizes both hospitals requirement as well as nurse preferences by allowing flexibility in the transfer of nurses from different duties. The model also incorporated additional policies which are part of the hospitals requirement but not part of the legislations. Hospitals key primary mission is to ensure continuous ward care service with appropriate number of nursing staffs and the right mix of nursing skills. The planning and scheduling is done to avoid additional non essential cost for hospital. Nurses preferences are taken into considerations such as the number of night shift and consecutive rest days. We will also reformulate problems from another paper which considers the penalty objective using the model but without the flexible components. The models are built using AIMMS which solves the problem in very short amount of time.

Intelligent Search Heuristics for Cost Based Scheduling

Nurse scheduling is a difficult optimization problem with multiple constraints. There is extensive research in the literature solving the problem using meta-heuristics approaches. In this paper, we will investigate an intelligent search heuristics that handles cost based scheduling problem. The heuristics demonstrated superior performances compared to the original algorithms used to solve the problems described in Li et. Al. (2003) and Ozkarahan (1989) in terms of time needed to establish a feasible solution. Both problems can be formulated as a cost problem. The search heuristic consists of several phrases of search and input based on the cost of each assignment and how the assignment will interact with the cost of the resources.