PMID- 22824049
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20121218
LR  - 20190117
IS  - 1728-7731 (Electronic)
IS  - 1726-4901 (Linking)
VI  - 75
IP  - 7
DP  - 2012 Jul
TI  - Integration of fuzzy set theory and TOPSIS into HFMEA to improve outpatient 
      service for elderly patients in Taiwan.
PG  - 341-8
LID - 10.1016/j.jcma.2012.05.001 [doi]
AB  - BACKGROUND: Taiwan became a World Health Organization-defined aging country in 
      1993, and it is estimated to become an aged country by 2017, surpassing Japan as 
      the fastest aging country in the world. However, healthcare services in Taiwan 
      need a wide range of improvements to cope with the challenges of population 
      aging. METHODS: Healthcare failure mode and effects analysis (HFMEA) developed by 
      the Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS) was 
      used to evaluate the inconvenience of outpatient registration process for elderly 
      patients. Also, fuzzy set theory was used along with technique for order 
      preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method in multiple criteria 
      decision making (MCDM) to rank the failure risks in the HFMEA. RESULTS: The top 
      three failure modes ranked by the TOPSIS method were "short consultation time," 
      "possible complications of the checkup or treatment were not told," and "opinions 
      and feelings of patients and relatives were not respected." Based on those 
      failure modes, improvements were proposed and results were feedback to hospitals. 
      A random sample of 40 elderly patients was selected for interview at the 
      outpatient department of a tertiary medical center in Taiwan. Thirty-seven out of 
      the 40 elderly patients (92.5%) agreed with the executive expert team. This meant 
      the improvement proposals were effective. CONCLUSION: In this study, HFMEA was 
      extended to explore the impacts of geriatric outpatient service process failures 
      on elderly patients. Using fuzzy set theory and the TOPSIS method in multiple 
      criteria decision making to rank the severity of the failure modes, the risk 
      assessment of the geriatric outpatient service process was more objective when 
      analyzed with quantitative data.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2012. Published by Elsevier B.V.
FAU - Kuo, Ren-Jieh
AU  - Kuo RJ
AD  - Department of Industrial Management, National Taiwan University of Science and 
      Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
FAU - Wu, Yung-Hung
AU  - Wu YH
FAU - Hsu, Tsung-Shin
AU  - Hsu TS
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20120710
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - J Chin Med Assoc
JT  - Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA
JID - 101174817
SB  - IM
MH  - *Ambulatory Care
MH  - Decision Making
MH  - *Fuzzy Logic
MH  - *Health Services for the Aged
MH  - Humans
MH  - Outpatients
MH  - Surveys and Questionnaires
MH  - Taiwan
EDAT- 2012/07/25 06:00
MHDA- 2012/12/19 06:00
CRDT- 2012/07/25 06:00
PHST- 2011/11/29 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2012/02/23 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2012/07/25 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2012/07/25 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2012/12/19 06:00 [medline]
AID - S1726-4901(12)00110-4 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.jcma.2012.05.001 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Chin Med Assoc. 2012 Jul;75(7):341-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jcma.2012.05.001. Epub 
      2012 Jul 10.