Optimization Helps Scheduling Nursing Staff at the Long-Term Care Homes of the City of Toronto

The City of Toronto Long-Term Care Homes and Services (LTCH&S) division is one the largest providers long-term care in Canadian province Ontario, providing to 2,640 residents at 10 homes across Toronto. Our collaboration with LTCH&S was initiated facilitate increasingly challenging task scheduling nursing staff reduce high absenteeism rate observed among part-time nurses. We developed a spreadsheet-based tool automate generation schedules incorporate nurses’ preferences for different shifts into schedules. At core hierarchical optimization model that generates feasible schedule highest total preference score while satisfying maximum possible demand. Feasible had abide by set complex seniority requirements, which prioritized more-senior nurses when allocating available shifts. implemented 391-bed home allowed managers generate within fraction an hour, contrast status quo manual approach, could take up tens hours. In addition, successfully accounted with, on average, above 94% allocated ranked as most preferred. History: This paper refereed.