Hospital Selection of Health Tourists: A Study with Ahp and Topsis Methods

Abstract

Developments in transport and communication technologies have made traveling easier between countries. In addition to these developments, the search for low-cost and high-quality health services has been effective in the development of the health tourism sector. This study aims to determine the hospital preferences of health tourists with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods in line with expert opinions. Within the scope of this study, the criteria affecting the hospital preferences of health tourists were weighted with the AHP method, and ideal hospital alternative for health tourists was selected with the TOPSIS method by using the criteria weights obtained. The opinions of seven experts, who are experts in their field at least ten years, were taken by using the 9-scale evaluation scale developed by Saaty. As a result of expert opinions; it has been determined that qualified health personnel, quality of medical care applied, modern equipment of the hospital, recommendability of the hospital and health personnel are more effective. For a preferable hospital strategy within the scope of health tourism, deficiencies of health personnel in terms of foreign language and professional experience should be eliminated, and devices that will increase the preferability of the hospital by following technological developments should be used. In addition, necessary improvements should be made by applying satisfaction surveys to health tourists.