Monitoring healthcare performance by analytic hierarchy process: a developing-country perspective

The formulation and solution of multi-criteria healthcare decision problems is of critical importance to the health and socio-economic betterment of developing countries. The study shows how the multi-criteria decision-making method could facilitate implementation of healthcare performance analysis, especially for the public healthcare system of Bangladesh, which operates mainly through thana health complexes (THCs). We include outreach services and rural facilities together with ongoing THC activities, and analyze their relative performance. The methodology uses a phase of the Delphi method and of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach. The outcome of Delphi is used as input for the hierarchical processing procedure in AHP and determines performance order of the healthcare activities. Results from AHP are discussed for implementation in decision-making and the managerial policymaking process, towards improvement of overall healthcare performance.