Abstract
The actual coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the limit of emergency systems worldwide, leading to the collapse of health systems, police, first responders, as well as other areas. Various ways of dealing with this world crisis have been proposed from many aspects, with fuzzy multi-criteria decision analysis being a method that can be applied to a wide range of emergency systems and professional groups, aiming to confront several associated issues and challenges. The purpose of this critical review was to discuss the basic principles, present current applications during the first pandemic wave, and propose future implications of this methodology. For this purpose, both primary sources, such as scientific articles, and secondary ones, such as bibliographic indexes, web pages, and databases, were used. The main search engines were PubMed, SciELO, and Google Scholar. The method was a systematic literature review of the available literature regarding the performance of the fuzzy multi-criteria decision analysis of emergency systems in the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study highlight the importance of the fuzzy multi-criteria decision analysis method as a beneficial tool for healthcare workers and first responders’ emergency professionals to face this pandemic as well as to manage the created uncertainty and its related risks.
Highlights
2021, some previous studies were included to analyze the basic principles of the multi-criteria decision analysis method in general
The results showed that plasma exchange was the most preferred alternative, followed by FPV and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), while hydroxychloroquine was the least favorable
Since no data regarding the application of the fMCDM method in military professionals during this emergency period are available, future possibilities may include the advisory and the more active role based on previous experience in crisis leadership [63]
Summary
Some countries began preparing their health systems for the increase in severely ill patients and implemented stringent measures to prevent the contagion from spreading, such as closing borders, pre-emptive isolation, and quarantine [2] Depending on these measures adopted, each country has suffered the appearance of different waves of infection. Given the looming epidemiological spectrum and the shadow it has left, it is strictly necessary to continuously analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the healthcare systems and decision-making processes worldwide, which would lead to an adaptative, efficient model that can give speed, agility flexibility and a prompt response, especially on qualified medical personnel To confront this crisis situation, decision-making models are currently being used in hospital emergencies by providing essential information regarding the prediction of spreading, the evaluation of different factors, determining the weights of criteria, and re-organizing the healthcare systems [7].
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