Healthcare Facility Location: A DEA Approach

Abstract

The purpose of the current paper is to apply Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to the healthcare facility location problem. First, facility location models used in healthcare facility location planning as well as location objectives and potential problems are examined. Subsequently, a published research study is used to identify demographic factors considered in the selection of candidate towns for the location of a healthcare facility, and to classify these factors into inputs and outputs. A DEA model was developed and solved for each one of the towns in the study, and the results compared to those obtained through the study’s proposed factor-weighted approach. Results were analyzed to recognize the DEA approach’s strengths over the published study’s results