A decision-making framework for evaluating medical equipment suppliers under uncertainty

The procurement of medical equipment is a critical concern for healthcare organizations striving to deliver comprehensive patient care. Thus, the procurement process, including performance evaluation and selection of medical equipment suppliers, poses a significant challenge for healthcare organizations. The decision-making process also involves multiple decision-makers making subjective judgments about various quantitative and qualitative criteria for several alternative suppliers. This paper presents a framework for medical equipment supplier evaluation under uncertain assessment information by integrating rank order centroid (ROC) and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP) techniques. The first stage involves identifying the key criteria influencing the performance evaluation of medical equipment suppliers for healthcare organizations. The ROC technique is used to assign weights to the important criteria, reducing uncertainty of weight assignment and subjective judgment information of the decision-makers. The fuzzy AHP method is then applied to evaluate and rank potential suppliers based on their overall performance. The approach is validated through a case study in a hospital setting, demonstrating the practical applicability of the proposed approach in a real-world scenario. Results indicate that the proposed hybrid method effectively supports group decision-making under uncertainty, providing healthcare organizations with a systematic and logical approach for selecting the most suitable medical equipment supplier. This framework enhances procurement efficiency and supports better resource allocation in healthcare.