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BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
Published in: BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 1/2015

Open Access 01-12-2015 | Research article

Which family physician should I choose? The analytic hierarchy process approach for ranking of criteria in the selection of a family physician

Authors: Emel Kuruoglu, Dilek Guldal, Vildan Mevsim, Tolga Gunvar

Published in: BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making | Issue 1/2015

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Abstract

Background

Choosing the most appropriate family physician (FP) for the individual, plays a fundamental role in primary care. The aim of this study is to determine the selection criteria for the patients in choosing their family doctors and priority ranking of these criteria by using the multi-criteria decision-making method of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model.

Methods

The study was planned and conducted in two phases. In the first phase, factors affecting the patients’ decisions were revealed with a qualitative research. In the next phase, the priorities of FP selection criteria were determined by using AHP model. Criteria were compared in pairs. 96 patient were asked to fill the information forms which contains comparison scores in the Family Health Centres.

Results

According to the analysis of focus group discussions FP selection criteria were congregated in to five groups: Individual Characteristics, Patient-Doctor relationship, Professional characteristics, the Setting, and Ethical Characteristics.
For each of the 96 participants, comparison matrixes were formed based on the scores of their information forms. Of these, models of only 5 (5.2 %) of the participants were consistent, in other words, they have been able to score consistent ranking. The consistency ratios (CR) were found to be smaller than 0.10. Therefore the comparison matrix of this new model, which was formed based on the medians of scores only given by these 5 participants, was consistent (CR = 0.06 < 0.10).
According to comparison results; with a 0.467 value-weight, the most important criterion for choosing a family physician is his/her ‘Professional characteristics’.

Conclusions

Selection criteria for choosing a FP were put in a priority order by using AHP model. These criteria can be used as measures for selecting alternative FPs in further researches.
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Metadata
Title
Which family physician should I choose? The analytic hierarchy process approach for ranking of criteria in the selection of a family physician
Authors
Emel Kuruoglu
Dilek Guldal
Vildan Mevsim
Tolga Gunvar
Publication date
01-12-2015
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making / Issue 1/2015
Electronic ISSN: 1472-6947
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-015-0183-1

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