Application of Fuzzy Multicriteria Group Decision-Making to Prioritize Infectious Waste Incineration Development in Phayao Province Hospitals Lacking Supportive Information

Abstract

This research proposes a method to prioritize sites for infectious waste incineration development plants using Phayao Province hospitals as a case study. The framework consists of four main process categories as criteria selection: scoring and weighting approach, weighted score aggregation and defuzzification method, and sensitivity analysis. The literature review determined six evaluation criteria as waste volume, space, human resource, administration and management, complaints, and environmental stability. Since most of the criteria are in the spects of spoken word or fuzzy language, the fuzzy additive weighting decision rule is applied. Hence, the scoring and the weighting criteria are collected from interviewing the competitive hospitals' group decision- makers and chief executives. Weight-score aggregation, center-of-area defuzzification and sensitivity analyses were used to convert the overall score of all elements of fuzzy numbers into crisp values and test the effect of criteria on the ranking. Results identified three hospitals that showed high potential as sites for the development of new infectious medical waste incineration plants as Dokkhamtai, Chiangkham, and Phayao Hospitals. The developed framework assisted group decision-making based on the ability of the hospitals to develop a new infectious waste incineration plant. This framework can be applied to prioritize facility development in any province lacking supportive information.