Uncertainty Modelling of Citizen-Centered Group Decision Making Using Fuzzy-Vikor Case Study: Site Selection of Healthcare Services

Abstract

The participation of citizens in decision-making processes is one of the main concerns in urban planning. People's contributions increase the usability and efficiency of urban facilities. Hospitals and healthcare services are among the most important public facilities that citizens require. This paper aims to improve an approach that could locate the hospitals according to the citizens' preferences. Decision-making process in this situation should consider the uncertainties exist in any steps of decisions-making. In this regard, this paper applied Fuzzy-VIKOR method that is appropriate to model such kind of uncertainty. The proposed method was accomplished in Districts 6 of Tehran province. The achieved results were compared with each other in two different scenario (using expert knowledge and citizens' satisfaction). The comparison of the results showed that the more suitable distribution and density of proposed sites for hospitals must be observed if the citizens' perspectives were considered. Also, the proposed sites with experts follow urban planning principals rather than the second case.

Advancing Urban Healthcare Equity Analysis: Integrating Public Participation GIS with Fuzzy Best–Worst Decision-Making

“…The set of criteria, indicated as (c 1 , c 2 , ..., c n ), is used to construct the best-worst method (BWM). Subsequently, the basic model (c b ) is selected and compared with other criteria based on the hourly scale (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9). The comparison involves evaluating the basic model with other models, represented as c b = (c b1 , c b2 , ..., c bn ), with c bb = 1, indicating that the minimum basic model (c w ) against others is represented as c w = (c 1w , c 2w , ..., c nw ) and is based on the same scale of measurement.…”

“…Accessibility to health centres and hospitals (HCHs), as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), refers to the provision of health services that are easily and reasonably available to all segments of both urban and rural populations, with a particular focus on marginalised and underserved groups. The accessibility to HCHs influences the broader aspects of physical, social, and mental well-being and the prevention of preventable mortality [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

“…In China, researchers such as Lu et al (2019) [2], Ni et al (2019) [16], and Wang et al (2022) [17] have used travel time criterion to assess patients' accessibility to medical centres in urban and rural areas. Neisani Samani and Alesheikh (2019) [3] investigated healthcare system inequities by considering citizens' preferences. Their suggested methodology incorporated the F-VIKOR approach to address decision-making uncertainties at multiple levels.…”

Developing an Approach for Generating a Spatial Urban Health Equity Map and Validating via Volunteered Geographic Information

“…Equity in the use of health care services is an issue, which has increasingly been on the health policy agenda in recent years in both middle-and low-income countries. Distribution of resources within the health care sector may follow many different paths depending on the stated aims or goals of the health system (Mishra et al, 2019;Neisani Samani and Alesheikh, 2019;Whitehead et al, 2019). Utilitarian principles dictate that resources should be allocated in such a way that one can maximize the overall health and wellbeing of society.…”

“…The results indicated that significant differences exist in spatial accessibility to different levels of health care. Neisani Samani and Alesheikh (2019) improved an approach that could identify inequity in health care services based on citizens' preferences. The decision-making process in this situation considered the uncertainties that exist in any steps of decision-making using the Fuzzy-VIKOR method.…”