A Fuzzy Preference-Ranking Model for a Quality Evaluation of Hospital Web Sites

This article presents a quality evaluation model for measuring the performance of hospital Web sites. The model is developed on the basis of a conceptual framework, which consists of seven major e-service quality dimensions, including tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, confidence, empathy, quality of information, and integration of communication issues of websites. The dimensions and their associated attributes are firstly obtained from published articles in the healthcare and information technology literature and then adapted according to the suggestions of related domain experts. Two multi criteria decision-making methods are used in the evaluation procedure. Determined website evaluation dimensions and their relevant attributes are weighted using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. Vagueness in some stages of the evaluation required the incorporation of fuzzy numbers in the assessment process. Both fuzzy and crisp data are then synthesized using the fuzzy PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation) ranking method. The model is applied to initially measure the performance of the websites of Turkish hospitals. This study should be of interest to healthcare and technology practitioners and researchers as the findings shed light on the further development of performance measurements for hospital Web sites.