Physical therapy scheduling of inpatients based on improved Genetic Algorithm

In recent years, the physical therapy has become more and more extensive. How to schedule corresponding treatments efficiently in rehabilitation hospitals has attracted the attention of many scholars. A typical physical therapy treatment can be divided into three stages, i.e., the beginning, the treating and the ending. Moreover, only the beginning and the ending stages require a therapist. The treating stage does not. In addition, a physical therapy treatment requires to occupy a bed and an instrument related simultaneously. In order to solve challenging scheduling problems, a genetic algorithm based on Waiting Time Priority Algorithm (WTPA) is designed. Finally, an instance from the rehabilitation department in a hospital is tested. By comparing with the classical simulated annealing algorithm (SA), it verifies the effectiveness and efficiency of the genetic algorithm designed. Copyright © 2021 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.