Spatial Modeling and Prioritization of Potential Areas for Determining Location of Hospitals by a GIS-Based Multi-Criteria Decision Making Analyses: A Case Study of the 5th District of Tehran

Hospitals are among the most essential human services whose role in the health of the citizens is very important. One of the important issues related to hospitals in developed cities is determining the optimal location for their construction. In this study, in order to select the optimal hospital location, a combination of expert opinions, GIS, and MCDM was used. For this purpose, 12 criteria were selected for the spatial modeling of the potential areas of hospital establishment, and then the weight of each criterion was calculated using the weighting method of Analytic Network Process (ANP). Then, a map of the potential areas for the hospital establishment was prepared and 11 sites in the potential areas were selected. In the next step, the weight of each criterion was determined again using Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method. Then, by the integration of two weighting methods, i.e., ANP and CRITIC, with two MCDM methods, i.e., EDAS and VIKOR, these sites were ranked. The results of spatial modeling showed that the western half of the district is more suitable for the construction of a new hospital than the other areas. According to the results of the ANP, the distance from hospitals, and according to the results of the CRITIC, the seismic vulnerability were the most important criterions in determining the optimal hospital location. Based on the ranking results coming from CRITIC-EDAS, CRITIC-VIKOR, and ANP-EDAS, the site No. 1, and according to the ranking results of the ANP-VIKOR, the site No. 8 have been the most suitable places for the construction of a new hospital. In the light of the results of the site evaluations by experts, CRITIC-EDAS and CRITIC-VIKOR methods are more accurate for hospital location selection.