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Multi-criteria decision analysis for emergency medical service assessment

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Abstract

In emergency management, it is important to arrange the medical resources according to emergency needs. This paper proposes a multi-criteria decision analysis model that combines grey theory and multi-criteria decision making theory to assess the current medical resource situation, find satisfactory solutions, and help the emergency decision makers to take appropriate responses in a timely manner. In addition, the best alternative is identified by the global optimal solution which can provide a theoretical guidance for decision makers to optimize the allocation of medical resources. To validate the proposed model, this paper conducts a case study of medical service assessment in provinces of East China. The results demonstrate that the proposed model can provide objective and comprehensive assessment of medical resources.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the reviewers for their valuable suggestions which helped in improving the quality of this paper. This research has been partially supported by Grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (#71222108), the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (#20120185110031) and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-10-0293).

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Correspondence to Gang Kou.

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Kou, G., Wu, W. Multi-criteria decision analysis for emergency medical service assessment. Ann Oper Res 223, 239–254 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-014-1630-6

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