An empirical approach to setting priorities within a department of rehabilitation

The current need to maintain or increase levels of service, despite shrinking budgets, has prompted hospital department heads to focus increased attention on their process of decisionmaking around resource allocation. This paper presents a rational method of decision-making through priority-setting. The method was developed in x department of rehabilitation to assist with the cost-effective assignment of staff to the various services in the hospital. The method is based on a set of seventeen weighted criteria, which evaluate the relative importance of services that the department staffs. While the method has specific reference to a rehabilitation department, the authors feel that it may have application to a variety of other departments or settings.