Occupational health and safety risk assessment using a fuzzy multi-criteria approach in a hospital in Chennai, India

Abstract

Objectives. Hospitals provide direct and indirect employment benefits to medical professionals. Accidents in hospitals often lead to disastrous consequences such as fatalities, property damage and economic losses. It is, therefore, imperative to have an occupational health and safety (OHS) policy that aims to reduce work-related accidents to acceptable levels. This study aims to investigate health risks to staff from various hazards and suggest control measures to prevent recurrence of accidents. Methods. A two-stage fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach incorporating the fuzzy analytical hierarchical process (FAHP) and fuzzy technique for order preference for similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) was applied to assess the hazards in a leading multi-speciality hospital in Chennai. Results. The top three hazards identified in the workplace were electrical hazards, faulty medical equipment, and ventilation and air conditioning hazards. Subsequently, control measures were suggested to reduce the recurrence of hazards. Finally, a survey of hospital accidents occurring in India between 2010 and 2020 was conducted and compared with the results of this study. Conclusions. The survey findings show similarity to the hazard rankings obtained in this work, thus validating the methodology used for the assessment of hazards in hospitals. Electrical hazards and faulty medical equipment should be monitored.

KEYWORDS:

• occupational health and safety
• risk assessment and management
• fuzzy logic
• fuzzy analytical hierarchical process
• fuzzy TOPSIS
• hospital safety

Acknowledgements

The first author (Pavanaditya Badida) gratefully acknowledges the award of SRF from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi (File No. 09/468/0503/2017-EMR-I), India in pursuit of his PhD study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.