A two-phase method for layout optimization: The case of a referral cancer center in Latin America

This work proposes a two-phase approach for optimizing the layout of a referral cancer center in Latin America, which results from a collaboration between a university, in Brazil, and a consultancy company. The objective of the problem is to minimize the total transportation cost of patients, medical/non-medical staff, materials, and equipment. In the first phase, an integer programming model is used to assign departments to floors in such a way that the vertical transportation cost between departments is reduced. In the second phase, a heuristic method is employed to determine the layout of the blocks across a given floor, when applicable, while minimizing the transportation cost within the floor. Process mining is employed to gather data associated with the movement flow between rooms and departments within the unit. The developed approach was used by the managers of the cancer center to help design a new hospital building, and the layout produced by the optimization procedure was compared with the initial layout originally built by the architects of the hospital. The results obtained demonstrate that our method was capable of significantly reducing both vertical ( $-19.7\%$ ) and horizontal ( $-22.7\%$ ) transportation costs within the hospital.