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Title: Selection of infectious medical waste disposal firms by using the analytic hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis

Abstract

While Taiwanese hospitals dispose of large amounts of medical waste to ensure sanitation and personal hygiene, doing so inefficiently creates potential environmental hazards and increases operational expenses. However, hospitals lack objective criteria to select the most appropriate waste disposal firm and evaluate its performance, instead relying on their own subjective judgment and previous experiences. Therefore, this work presents an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to objectively select medical waste disposal firms based on the results of interviews with experts in the field, thus reducing overhead costs and enhancing medical waste management. An appropriate weight criterion based on AHP is derived to assess the effectiveness of medical waste disposal firms. The proposed AHP-based method offers a more efficient and precise means of selecting medical waste firms than subjective assessment methods do, thus reducing the potential risks for hospitals. Analysis results indicate that the medical sector selects the most appropriate infectious medical waste disposal firm based on the following rank: matching degree, contractor's qualifications, contractor's service capability, contractor's equipment and economic factors. By providing hospitals with an effective means of evaluating medical waste disposal firms, the proposed AHP method can reduce overhead costs and enable medical waste management to understand the marketmore » demand in the health sector. Moreover, performed through use of Expert Choice software, sensitivity analysis can survey the criterion weight of the degree of influence with an alternative hierarchy.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Department of Communications Management, Shih Hsin University, No.1, Lane 17, Mu-Cha Road, Sec.1, Taipei 11604, Taiwan (China), E-mail: celina9@ms26.hinet.net
  2. Graduate Institute of Business and Management, Yuanpei University, 306 Yuanpei Street, Hsin Chu 300, Taiwan (China), E-mail: alexru00@ms41.hinet.net
  3. Graduate Institute of Business and Management, Yuanpei University, 306 Yuanpei Street, Hsin Chu 300, Taiwan (China), E-mail: ting.ding@msa.hinet.net
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
21153974
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Waste Management
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 28; Journal Issue: 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2007.05.016; PII: S0956-053X(07)00181-X; Copyright (c) 2007 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0956-053X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; COMPUTER CODES; COST; HEALTH HAZARDS; HOSPITALS; MUNICIPAL WASTES; NONRADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL; NONRADIOACTIVE WASTES; PERFORMANCE; SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS

Citation Formats

Hsu, P.-F., Wu, C.-R., and Li, Y.-T. Selection of infectious medical waste disposal firms by using the analytic hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis. United States: N. p., 2008. Web. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2007.05.016.
Hsu, P.-F., Wu, C.-R., & Li, Y.-T. Selection of infectious medical waste disposal firms by using the analytic hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2007.05.016
Hsu, P.-F., Wu, C.-R., and Li, Y.-T. 2008. "Selection of infectious medical waste disposal firms by using the analytic hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2007.05.016.
@article{osti_21153974,
title = {Selection of infectious medical waste disposal firms by using the analytic hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis},
author = {Hsu, P.-F. and Wu, C.-R. and Li, Y.-T.},
abstractNote = {While Taiwanese hospitals dispose of large amounts of medical waste to ensure sanitation and personal hygiene, doing so inefficiently creates potential environmental hazards and increases operational expenses. However, hospitals lack objective criteria to select the most appropriate waste disposal firm and evaluate its performance, instead relying on their own subjective judgment and previous experiences. Therefore, this work presents an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to objectively select medical waste disposal firms based on the results of interviews with experts in the field, thus reducing overhead costs and enhancing medical waste management. An appropriate weight criterion based on AHP is derived to assess the effectiveness of medical waste disposal firms. The proposed AHP-based method offers a more efficient and precise means of selecting medical waste firms than subjective assessment methods do, thus reducing the potential risks for hospitals. Analysis results indicate that the medical sector selects the most appropriate infectious medical waste disposal firm based on the following rank: matching degree, contractor's qualifications, contractor's service capability, contractor's equipment and economic factors. By providing hospitals with an effective means of evaluating medical waste disposal firms, the proposed AHP method can reduce overhead costs and enable medical waste management to understand the market demand in the health sector. Moreover, performed through use of Expert Choice software, sensitivity analysis can survey the criterion weight of the degree of influence with an alternative hierarchy.},
doi = {10.1016/j.wasman.2007.05.016},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/21153974}, journal = {Waste Management},
issn = {0956-053X},
number = 8,
volume = 28,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2008},
month = {Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2008}
}