Home health care routing and scheduling problems: a literature review

Home health services arise from the need for hospitals to care for patients and/or dependent persons who, due to special conditions, require hospitalisation and/or care at home. The organisation of this service impacts the quality and cost of health services, which implies the programming of medical and social staff and the design of their daily routes. This literature review presents a description of the problem and a taxonomy of its characteristics and restrictions. It summarises the state-of-the-art decision-making solutions to deal with the home health care routing and scheduling problem and studies related objectives and constraints.