Evaluation of Subjective Indicators for Medical Consumables Based on Fuzzy Group Decision-Making Methods

SHI Lan-ping, HUANG Zhe

(School of Business Administration, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China)

Evaluation of Subjective Indicators for Medical Consumables Based on Fuzzy Group Decision-Making Methods

SHI Lan-ping, HUANG Zhe

(School of Business Administration, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China)

Objective To provide references for the evaluation of medical consumable’s bidding. Methods Common subjective indicators were listed according to medical consumable’s bidding scheme. Linguistic variables were applied to evaluate subjective indicators, which was expressed by triangular fuzzy numbers. The decision preference was determined through the calculation. Results and Conclusion Currently the evaluation method of medical consumables is still on initial stage. An example is given to exemplify the model feasible and effective.

medical consumable; evaluation of bidding; fuzzy group decision-making method; linguistic variable; triangular fuzzy number

1 Introduction

Currently, bid for medical consumables is carried out in China to regulate the procurement, squeeze the inflated price and control the commercial bribery. In 2004, centralized bid procurement for high-value medical consumables was organized in Beijing, Liaoning and other 6 provinces by the Health Department. In 2010, each province (district, city) was authorized to improve the bidding activity. By referring to the schemes of medical consumables’ bidding in some related provinces and cities, we found that the evaluation of subjective index was made by experts according to their clinical experience directly, which lacked science and objectivity[1]. Evaluation plays an important role during the bidding process, thus medical consumables of high-quality is determined by reasonable and effective evaluation, which will guarantee the safety of consumables as well. Common subjective indices are evaluation of medical consumables based on fuzzy listed in this paper, and group decision is proposed to provide a reference for the bidding.

2 Common subjective indices

By searching the key words “medical consumables, bidding” on the websites of Health and Family Planning Commission in each province, we got the data of centralized bid procurement for medicine and medical equipment in the main provinces in recent years (autonomous region), see Table 1. In general, several factors should be considered when choosing the indices: comprehensive but not redundancy well structured and easily accessed[2]. Based on this principle, we selected the data from Table 1 and the common subjective indices of medical consumables for bidding were listed. (Table 2)

3 Evaluation of subjective indices of medical consumables based on fuzzy group decision

Information from different experts can be integrated by group decision, which will overcome the one-sidedness of single decision-making[3]. Due to the complexity of the problem and cognitive limitations of decision-makers, linguistic variables such as “well”, “better” could be used to have a better description during the decision. In 1970, fuzzy mathematics was introduced to the field of decision by R.E.Bellman and L.A.Zadeh, initiating the research of fuzzy group decision[4]. In this paper, linguistic variables which will be transferred to triangular fuzzy numbers are used to describe the subjective indices, knowledge and preference of experts will be collected and integrated, thus fuzzy algorithm would be used to avoid a lot of mathematical calculations.

Table 1 Bidding scheme for medical consumables in different provinces (autonomous region)

Table 4 Language variable values and the corresponding triangular fuzzy numbers of subjective indices of tender company S1

Table 5 Language variable values and the corresponding triangular fuzzy numbers of subjective indices of tender company S2

Table 6 Language variable values and the corresponding triangular fuzzy numbers of subjective indices of tender company S3

different linguistic variables of indices, which will have a certain degree of subjectivity; reasonable indices system is the premise of scientific evaluation of the object which should be updated timely with the in-depth understanding.

All in all, evaluation of medical consumables’subjective indices based on fuzzy group decision-making is a bold and effective attempt. Evaluation of medical consumables’ bidding will be more mature and scientific with the development of science and technology.

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[2] SHAO Qiang, LI You-juan, TIAN Qing-wang. Construction Method of Comprehensive Evaluation Index System [J]. Journal of Daqing Petroleum Institute, 2004, 28(3): 74-76.

[3] LI Shuai, GUO Ya-jun, YI Ping-tao, etc. Partner Selection Based on Fuzzy Group Decision-making for Enterprise Formation [J]. Journal of Northeastern University (Nature Science), 2004, 25(3): 295-298.

[4] Bellman R E, Zadeh L A. Decision-making in a Fuzzy Environment [J]. Management Science, 1970, 17(4): B-141-B-164.

[5] CHEN Wei-dong, FAN Zhi-ping. Method for Supplied Selection Based on Fuzzy Group Decision [J]. Symposium of Chinese Control and Decision, 2005: 1623-1625.

Author’s information: HUANG Zhe, Associate professor. Major research area: Knowledge management. Tel: 13998874590, E-mail: huangzhe2000@sina.com