Application of a FMEA method combining interval 2-tuple linguistic variables and grey relational analysis in preoperative medical service process

Abstract In general, the patients must pass through a series of preoperative hospital services before being operated in the operating theatre. Since the low efficiency of the services involved in the pre-operative procedures may have significant impact on the operating theatre, the hospital management should not only focus on the optimal allocation of the resources at the operating theatre, but also take actions to improve the service quality of key resources involved in the pre-operative procedures. In this study, a failure mode and effect analysis model (FMEA) is developed in combination with interval 2-tuple linguistic and gray relational analysis to evaluate the possible risks for medical services involved in the pre-operative process of a special hospital. The purpose of this study is to unveil the possible factors that may lead to the low efficiency and low quality of such medical service so as to provide corresponding recommendations to improve their service quality, and indirectly improve the efficiency of the operating theatre of the targeted hospital.