Addressing decisions about new hospitals' siting: a multidimensional evaluation approach.

BACKGROUND Site selection for urban facilities is a crucial topic in planning decision processes for the several side effects they produce and the multiple criteria involved, especially for healthcare facilities. Nevertheless, the location problem has been ignored by most of the existing evaluation systems. METHODS Starting from a deep literature review and the analysis of hospitals in 10 European cities, the paper proposes an evaluation system divided into four macro-areas (Functional quality, Location quality, Environmental quality, Economical aspects), each in turn composed by criteria and sub-criteria. RESULTS The evaluation system has been applied for the site selection of "La Città della Salute" in Milan, Italy. Furthermore, the ShOS (Selection hospitals' Site) Evaluation Tool has been defined, with the aim of assessing the land suitability for new healthcare structures. CONCLUSION The ShOS evaluation tool improves the transparency and robustness of the decision-making process and it could be broadly applied.