Performance Assessment of Public Hospitals with the Entropy-Weighted TOPSIS Method: The Case of Turkey

Background: Hospitals make up the main cost factor of health systems and also face increasing pressure to improve efficiency. Improving the performance of hospitals, which are vital for public health, is very important for developing countries such as Turkey. Aims: We conducted this study to assess the performance of 544 secondary-level public hospitals in Turkey by geographical region. Methods: In the study, we used the entropy weighting method to obtain the objective weights of indicators with the evaluation criteria, and then we utilized the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method to rank the performance of hospitals by geographical region. Results: The comparison of hospital performances by geographical region indicated that the highest and the lowest mean scores belonged to the Mediterranean Region and the Eastern Anatolia Region, respectively. Conclusions: The socio-economic differences between geographical regions in Turkey were in parallel with the findings of the study. Although there is a need for professional management in resource allocation and use to improve the performance of public hospitals, it is necessary to focus on the origin of the problems first.