Ranking of hospitals in the case of COVID-19 outbreak: A new integrated approach using patient satisfaction criteria

ABSTRACT

Since December 2019, a new virus, called the Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19), triggers pneumonia outbreak from Wuhan across China, which now poses major health threats to public health. According to the World Health Organization, the death rate of this virus has been 3.4%. Hospitals are the most important element of the health care system during an outbreak like COVID 19. The main goal of hospitals is to provide high quality care to patients and meet their needs and expectations during an outbreak like COVID 19. The hospital must provide high quality services to meet patients’ needs. Expectations are therefore one of the most important determinants of patients’ or their families’ evaluation of service quality, and accurate understanding of customer expectations is the most important step in defining and delivering high quality services. In this study, using the FAHP-PROMETHEE hybrid approach, we will rate hospitals in Sari city of Iran in terms of patient satisfaction during the outbreak of COVID 19. Therefore, first, patient satisfaction factors are identified under normal conditions and then patient satisfaction factors are identified during the outbreak of COVID 19 and hospitals are ranked under normal conditions and during the outbreak of COVID 19 using FAHP-PROMETHEE approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Fuzzy AHP
• PROMETHEE
• patient satisfaction
• health care system
• outbreak of COVID 19

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Hossein Shirazi is an assistant Professor of Technology management department, Qom branch, Islamic Azad University. His research interests include supply chain, decision making techniques, game theory, and mathematical modeling.

Reza Kia is an assistant Professor of Logistics, Tourism and Service Management department in German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) and assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering in Islamic Azad University, Firoozkooh branch. His research interests include soft computing, fuzzy sets and systems and applied operations research.

Peiman Ghasemi is PhD of Industrial Engineering at the Islamic Azad University, South-Tehran Branch in Iran. He holds MSc in Industrial Engineering. His research interests include soft computing, fuzzy sets and systems, supply chain modeling, VRP and LRP.