Prioritization of COVID-19 Patients for Admission in the Intensive Care Unit in the Context of Hospital Bed Shortages: An Integrated Multi-criteria Decision Making Approach

Background: When an epidemic occurs, resources, including hospital beds, are severely limited and not all patients can be treated; so, hospital bed rationing is inevitable. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide a method for evaluating and prioritizing patients with COVID-19 for admission to the intensive care unit. Methods: This was a descriptive-survey study in terms of data collection method conducted in the summer of 2021. Following the formation of an expert panel with 4 specialists, a three-stage approach to evaluating and prioritizing COVID-19 patients was adopted by combining multi-criteria decision analysis methods. In the first stage, effective criteria and sub-criteria for patients’ prioritization were identified by a panel of experts and related studies, and the hierarchy of criteria was drawn. In the second stage, the Fuzzy best-worst method was used to determine the weight of criteria and sub-criteria. Finally, in the third stage, a combined compromise solution method was performed to prioritize 10 patients in need of COVID-19 and the most critical patient was selected. Results: According to the experts, among the 15 criteria studied, respiratory rate, PaO2/FiO2, impaired consciousness, mean arterial pressure and age were identified as 5 of the most important criteria in prioritizing COVID-19 patients for intensive care unit admission. In addition, 10 COVID-19 patients referred to Shohadaye Pakdasht Hospital were evaluated and prioritized with the proposed approach. Conclusion: The proposed method can be used as a useful tool in the evaluation of COVID-19 patients for admission to the intensive care unit and to support the vital decisions of physicians.