The problem of locating hospital departments so as to minimize the total distance travelled by patients can be formulated as a Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP).In general, (QAP) is one of the Combinatorial Optimization Problems and always high dimensional. Therefore, the use of meta-heuristics that generates good solutions in reasonable computer time becomes an attractive alternative. In this paper, a proposed artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm is used to optimize QAP. The main idea is to use different crossover techniques for employee and onlooker bee stages and use exchange position operator for scout bee stage. The results of ABC algorithm show the efficiency and capabilities of proposed algorithm in finding the optimum solutions, compared with results of GA and SA in all test problems. The purpose of this paper is to apply the QAP in Azadi hospital in Kirkuk city to minimize the total distance travelled by patients. The application involves determine the flow matrix and the distance matrix to solve the problem. The results related that QAP model was presented suitable framework for clinics allocation and optimum use.
Artificial Bee Colony for Quadratic Assignment Problem: A Hospital Case Study