Ranking of University Hospitals in Yazd based on National Nursing Indicators by AHP-TOPSIS Technique in 2016

Introduction: Hospitals as one of the main organizations of rendering services and the most costly operational units of the health system are of special importance. Meanwhile, nurses play a vital role in continuity of care, improvement of health, and productivity of the entire organization. This study was conducted with the aim of ranking hospitals of Yazd medical sciences university based on the national nursing indicators and with an AHP-TOPSIS combined approach. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in 2016. The statistical population consisted of 25 experts, including hospital directors and faculty members of care and health services' as well as health economics' management. The tools used were the nursing work index questionnaire and the index data collection form, validity and reliability of them were confirmed. For this purpose, initially by applying Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), weight and priority of nursing and then hospitals' indicators were calculated and ranked by TOPSIS technique. Prioritization of indicators was performed by Expert Choice software. Results: Based on the AHP method and pairwise comparisons within nursing indicators, the highest weight or priority was related to nursing staff ratio indicator of female /male with a weight of 0.290. However, the lowest weight or priority was related to the average of nursing staffs' overtime hours' indicator with a weight of 0.038. Based on the results and according to the national nursing indicators, city of Yazd gained the best situation totally and was then placed in the developed group. The worst situation was related to Mehriz and Taft cities. Conclusion: In order to reduce the differences of national nursing indicators among cities and to achieve a fair and balanced situation of health at the provincial level, it is recommended to reduce the gap among cities in enjoying from the health and care facilities by considering cities' developmental situation in this field and planning based on facts. It is also suggested to observe the sexual ratio in allocating nurses to hospitals.