An integrated approach towards ranking hospitals using Fuzzy AHP and ELECTRE-I technique

Abstract

ABSTRACT Selection of an appropriate hospital for availing medical treatment has become a very tedious task for patients these days. As the service quality of a healthcare unit involves measuring multi-faceted attributes, such as tangibles (infrastructure, apparatus, etc) and in-tangibles (waiting period, doctor expertize, trustworthiness, employee behavior, etc). SERVQUAL methodology has been successfully applied for measuring service quality for many years but due to its certain limitations many new approaches appeared for solving the issues related to multiple criteria decision making. In this paper, a novel model has been proposed based on six service quality dimensions i.e. tangibles, responsiveness, reliability, assurance, empathy [Parasuraman A, Zeithaml VA, Berry LL. A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. The Journal of Marketing. 1985;49(4):41–50.] and trustworthiness and twenty-eight sub-dimensions for measuring the performance of four multi-specialty hospitals of Punjab, India. The service quality performance of these hospitals has been measured and ranked using Fuzzy Set Theory, Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process (F-AHP) and Elimination and Choice Translating Reality (ELECTRE-I) technique. The weights of the six dimensions and sub-dimensions were generated and then the performance of each hospitals was ranked by applying F-AHP & ELECTRE–I technique. The results showed that the patients have given their priority towards trustworthiness and empathy aspects before selecting any hospital.