Evaluating and selecting hospital locations using fuzzy multicriteria decision making

The hospital location evaluation and selection process is complexand challenging owing to the multi-dimensional nature of the process and the presence of uncertainty and imprecision inherent in the decision making process. To ensure effective decisions are made, this paper presents a new approach for evaluating and selecting hospital locations. The evaluation problem is formulated as a multicriteria decision making problem, and a fuzzy multicriteria decision making algorithm is developed for evaluating and selecting hospital location alternatives. Linguistic terms approximated by fuzzy numbers are used to represent the subjective assessments of the decision maker. To avoid the complex and unreliable process of comparing fuzzy numbers usually required in fuzzy multicriteria decision making, a new algorithm is developed based on the concept of ideal solutions. A hospital location selection problem is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.