A WEIGHTED TCHEBYCHEFF APPROACH TO INTERACTIVE MULTIPLE OBJECTIVE 0-1 PROGRAMMING AS APPLIED TO THE HOSPITAL CAPITAL BUDGET.

摘要

The purpose of this research was twofold: first to apply multiple objective linear programming (MOLP) to the capital budgeting problem in a hospital and second to use the application as a case study of a new solution approach to MOLP. The hospital capital budget problem was chosen because the not-for-profit hospital is a natural multiobjective environment, the problem is of interest to practicing managers, and the solution to the problem could lead to reduced costs or improved services in the health area.; The augmented weighted Tchebycheff approach to MOLP was proposed by Steuer and Choo (1981). It's chief advantage over previous approaches is that if the nondominated solutions set is discrete, efficient points can be located that were previously overlooked. The hospital capital budget problem is a 0-1 integer problem and therefore a discrete case. In addition, the application is large enough (169 variables) to provide a study of the effect of size on the approach. The problem has eight objectives: two cost, one revenue, three effect (patient, physician, and employee), one to agree with a consulting firm, and one to meet requirements.; MOLP provided the decision maker with a satisfactory answer in five iterations. The decision maker felt comfortable in assessing the tradeoffs among the eight objectives. A problem was experienced in that the decision maker lost awareness of the items in the solutions while manipulating the objective values. The Tchebycheff approach compared favorably with previous approaches in ease of formulation, manipulation, and computer times. Some questions arose on the scales used for the effect inputs and on the form of the data presentation. The research leaves some questions of efficiency for future exploration.; The effectiveness of MOLP as a capital budgeting tool cannot be measured. The approach presented the decision maker with 52 different and disperse (over the efficient frontier) solutions. He has more information. It is assumed that more informed decisions are better decisions and that better hospital capital budget decisions will lead to cost containment.