Hospital Site Selection Research Articles

Hospital site selection with distance-based multi-criteria decision-making methods

ABSTRACT Hospital site selection affects hospital’s personnel, resources, environment, and even long term benefit and cost. Such a strategic decision must be made efficiently by considering many conflicting key criteria such as economic, environmental, and technical. In this study, TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), EDAS (Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution), and CODAS (COmbinative Distance-based ASsessment) methods which are distance-based Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods are applied to the hospital site selection problem. The weights of the hospital site selection criteria are derived from CRITIC (CRiteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation) method whereas the complete ranking of the hospital site alternatives is obtained by using TOPSIS, EDAS, and CODAS methods. According to the results of the CRITIC method the most important criterion is ‘market conditions’. The other criteria follow this criterion are cost, transportation, geological factors, land strategy, financial support by the government, environmental consideration, and demographic consideration, respectively. The complete ranking of the hospital site alternatives is also same according to the three distance-based methods. So it can be concluded that these methods can be used instead of each other as an alternative method for the various problem structures and overcoming the disadvantages of these methods.

Spatial analysis and urban land use planning emphasising hospital site selection: a case study of Isfahan city

Abstract Providing appropriate and equal healthcare to the various classes of society is among the major issues in social welfare. The spatial distribution and locating of health service centres are significant in addressing the healthcare needs of citizens. This issue needs to be evaluated using quantitative and qualitative approaches throughout those cities with high populations and activity density levels. By taking Isfahan metropolitan area as the case study area, in this study, a combination of Network Analyst tool within Geographic Information System (GIS) and an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model was used to evaluate the catchment areas of the 26 existing hospitals within the study area. Thus, with effective data collection in the form of layers of information such as transportation network, population density, land use, etc. using (GIS), the authors categorised urban land in seven categories from poor to very good for the construction of hospitals. The result of analysis indicated that existing hospitals covered approximately 24% of active urban areas within a standard access time. The result can be used for policy making and healthcare planning.

Spatial analysis and urban land use planning with emphasis on hospital site selection, case study: Isfahan city

Providing appropriate and equal health care to various classes of society is among the major issues in social welfare. Optimum spatial distribution and equitable locating of health services is important. Due to high population and density in the metropolis of Isfahan, quantitative and qualitative evaluation of hospitals of the city based on the related standards and regulations seems to be necessary. In this study, a combination of GIS and network analysis was used to evaluate the catchment areas of existing hospitals in Isfahan. The results indicated that existing hospitals covered only 23.91 percent of active urban areas at standard time. To promote fair access for citizens and improve the spatial distribution of hospitals based on the related standards and regulations, valuation of urban land for locating new hospital is necessary. Thus, with effective data collection in the form of layers of information such as transportation network, population density, land use, etc. using GIS and AHP model, the authors categorized urban land in 7 categories from poor to very good for construction of hospitals

Analytic hierarchy process for hospital site selection

Aim: This study investigated a decision support model for site selection to establish a new hospital based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The main purpose of this study was to select the best site for a hospital using this process in Muğla, Turkey.Method: AHP was employed as the methodological tool for the selection of the site. The study was based on 6 criteria and 19 sub-criteria. All districts in the province of Muğla were evaluated as alternatives. These districts include: Bodrum, Dalaman, Datça, Fethiye, Kavaklıdere, Koyceğiz, Marmaris, Menteşe, Milas, Seydikemer, Ula, and Yatağan. The alternatives were ranked using a 1–9 Saaty scale. The analysis of the hierarchy model was conducted by using the Super Decisions 2.2.6 software program.Results: Results show that demand is the most important factor in determining the appropriate hospital site, followed by accessibility, competitors, government, related industry and environmental conditions. According to the results, Bodrum was chosen to be the best site to establish a new hospital.Conclusion: Due to limited resources in developing countries such as Turkey, it is critical that decisions are made as a result of scientific research. In this context, investors need to take into account some factors in line with this aim. The proposed evaluation criteria provide a reference for hospital administrators and investors in the selection of hospital sites using AHP.

Field hospital site selection criteria: a Delphi consensus study

Objectives: The aim of this study was to survey systematically experts' opinion on field hospital site selection (FHSS) criteria in order to identify optimum locations for stockpiling them in preparedness phase of disaster management. Design: A Delphi consensus technique, directed by a systematic review of the published articles on the permanent hospitals site selection, is adapted. Results: A preliminary list of 40 criteria, obtained from a systematic review, was prepared. In the next stage, through expert panel review, only 15 criteria were considered appropriate for the FHSS. Thereafter, a panel of 44 experts consented to participate. In total, out of 15 generated statements, eight statements gained consensus in round 3. Conclusion: The application of 'expert Delphi technique' resulted in consensus in listing the main criteria for FHSS. The list would help policymakers to allocate optimum sites for maintaining FHs: thus increasing their efficacy.

Field hospital site selection criteria: a Delphi consensus study

Field hospital site selection criteria: a Delphi consensus study

Risk Criteria in Hospital Site Selection: A Systematic Review.

Introduction:Hospitals should be safe and remain functional in emergencies and disasters as it is mentioned in the Sendai Framework. Proper selection of a hospital location has a direct effect on survival of affected population in disasters as well as cost and benefit of the hospital in non-emergency situation. Different studies applied different criteria for Hospital Site Selection (HSS). The present study through a systematic review aimed to find out a categorized criteria list that have been used for (HSS) in the literature.Methods:In accordance with the PRISMA statement, “PubMed”, “ScienceDirect”, “Google Scholar”, and “Scopus” were searched up to end of 2015. All English Articles that were published in peer-reviewed journals and had discussed site selection criteria for hospitals were included. Out of 41 articles, 15 met the inclusion criteria in which 39 general criteria for HSS were applied. These criteria were categorized in six main groups including cost, demand, environmental, administrative, disaster risk, and “other” concerns through a focus group discussion.Results:Accordingly, the application percentage of cost, demand, environmental, administrative, disaster risk, and “other” concerns in the articles was 100, 93.3, 53.3, 33.3, 20.0, and 13.3 respectively. The least devoted attention was to disaster risk issues.Discussion:Few researchers applied risk related criteria for HSS. Further consideration of “risk of hazards” and “burden of diseases” in comprehensive studies, is recommended for HSS to guide the decision makers for building more resilient hospitals. Keywords Hospital, Site selection, Systematic review, Disaster risk

Current Status and Issues of Requirements for Hospital Location and Site Selection Processes on the Relocation of Hospitals with 200 or More Beds

Current Status and Issues of Requirements for Hospital Location and Site Selection Processes on the Relocation of Hospitals with 200 or More Beds

Optimal site selection for a hospital using a fuzzy extended ELECTRE approach

About two thirds of the population in India lives in villages. There is an acute shortage of health centers in rural areas. Hospitals are not located uniformly across different regions of country. Rural areas are also not well connected with cities due to a lack of infrastructure. Therefore, the demand for super specialty hospitals is greater in rural areas. This paper has analyzed the health requirement in a prominent Indian state, Bihar, in terms of population density. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the hospital site-selection problem by using the fuzzy extended elimination and choice expressing reality (ELECTRE) approach. Different attributes considered for site selection in this paper are cost, proximity, population characteristics, availability of human resources, accessibility, environment, etc. The findings of the study will be of great value to the health ministry and policy makers in taking judicious decision s while selecting the site for a new hospital or health center.

Belief-Rule-Based Intelligent Decision System to Select Hospital Location

<em>The general public’s demand of Bangladesh for safe health is rising promptly with the improvement of the living standard. However, the allocation of limited and unbalanced medical resources is deteriorating the assurance of safe health of the people. Therefore, the new hospital construction with rational allocation of resources is imminent and significant. The site selection for hospital is one of the crucial policy-related decisions taken by planners and policy makers. The process of hospital site selection is inherently complicated because of this involves many factors to be measured and evaluated. These factors are expressed both in objective and subjective ways where as a hierarchical relationship exists among the factors. In addition, it is difficult to measure qualitative factors in a quantitative way, resulting incompleteness in data and hence, uncertainty. Besides it is essential to address the subject of uncertainty by using apt methodology; otherwise, the decision to choose a suitable site will become inapt. Therefore, this paper demonstrates the application of a novel method named belief rule-based inference methodology-RIMER base intelligent decision system(IDS), which is capable of addressing suitable site for hospital by taking account of large number of criteria, where there exist factors of both subjective and objective nature.</em>

Feasibility Study on an Evidence-Based Decision-Support System for Hospital Site Selection for an Aging Population

An aging population has significant, dynamic and complex healthcare needs. Meeting such needs in a sustainable manner requires the capability to prioritize and project multiple relevant criteria (e.g., dynamic population health, treatment preferences, resources, technological changes and location of facilities). Most current decision-making processes for urban hospital site selection rely on a combination of experience and statistical data, yet they lack robustness and trending capabilities. This leads to tremendous efficiency implications, as it is not uncommon for hospitals to have a lifespan of more than 100 years after they are built. Our research team has developed an evidence-based decision-support system, enhanced with a Geographic Information System (GIS), that has the potential to overcome these limitations. This paper presents a feasibility demonstration of our framework through a retrospective case study of hospital site selection in Dallas, Texas, demonstrating its positive value in providing a foundation for informed healthcare resource allocation in the context of an aging population.

Can fuzzy extension of Delphi-analytical hierarchy process improve hospital site selection?

Applications of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and its Fuzzy Extension (FAHP) can be witnessed in different Multi-criteria Decision- Making (MCDM) situations including location selection. However, the use of such a prominent MCDM tool is limited when it comes to hospital site selection in India. This paper makes an attempt to do a formal study of hospital site selection in India using AHP and its fuzzy extension. The study embeds Delphi both with AHP and FAHP in generating consensus and does a comparative analysis to verify the supremacy of one over another. Three rural locations from India are considered for a potential hospital in the study. Results indicate ‘cost of land’ as the most important sub-factor across both the integrated models followed by ‘population characteristics’. D-AHP and D-FAHP has resulted in varying weights for few sub-factors nevertheless the differences are not statistically significant.

Hospital site selection using two-stage fuzzy multi-criteria decision making process

Site selection for sitting of urban activities/facilities is one of the crucial policy-related decisions taken by urban planners and policy makers. The process of site selection is inherently complicated. A careless site imposes exorbitant costs on city budget and damages the environment inevitably. Nowadays, multi-attributes decision making approaches are suggested to use to improve precision of decision making and reduce surplus side effects. Two well-known techniques, analytical hierarchal process and analytical network process are among multi-criteria decision making systems which can easily be consistent with both quantitative and qualitative criteria. These are also developed to be fuzzy analytical hierarchal process and fuzzy analytical network process systems which are capable of accommodating inherent uncertainty and vagueness in multi-criteria decision-making. This paper reports the process and results of a hospital site selection within the Region 5 of Shiraz metropolitan area, Iran using integrated fuzzy analytical network process systems with Geographic Information System (GIS). The weights of the alternatives were calculated using fuzzy analytical network process. Then a sensitivity analysis was conducted to measure the elasticity of a decision in regards to different criteria. This study contributes to planning practice by suggesting a more comprehensive decision making tool for site selection.

Hospital site selection using fuzzy AHP and its derivatives

Environmental managers are commonly faced with sophisticated decisions, such as choosing the location of a new facility subject to multiple conflicting criteria. This paper considers the specific problem of creating a well-distributed network of hospitals that delivers its services to the target population with minimal time, pollution and cost. We develop a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis process that combines Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis with the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP), and use this process to determine the optimum site for a new hospital in the Tehran urban area. The GIS was used to calculate and classify governing criteria, while FAHP was used to evaluate the decision factors and their impacts on alternative sites. Three methods were used to estimate the total weights and priorities of the candidate sites: fuzzy extent analysis, center-of-area defuzzification, and the α-cut method. The three methods yield identical priorities for the five alternatives considered. Fuzzy extent analysis provides less discriminating power, but is simpler to implement and compute than the other two methods. The α-cut method is more complicated, but integrates the uncertainty and overall attitude of the decision-maker. The usefulness of the new hospital site is evaluated by computing an accessibility index for each pixel in the GIS, defined as the ratio of population density to travel time. With the addition of a new hospital at the optimum site, this index improved over about 6.5 percent of the geographical area.