Research Article
Healthcare’s Sustainable Resource Planning Using Neutrosophic
Goal Programming
Ibrahim M. Hezam , Sarah A. H. Taher, Abdelaziz Foul, and Adel Fahad Alrasheedi
Statistics & Operations Research Department, College of Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Correspondence should be addressed to Ibrahim M. Hezam; ialmishnanah@ksu.edu.sa
Received 25 September 2021; Accepted 1 December 2021; Published 7 January 2022
Academic Editor: Mihajlo Jakovljevic
Copyright © 2022 Ibrahim M. Hezam et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
We develop neutrosophic goal programming models for sustainable resource planning in a healthcare organization. e
neutrosophic approach can help examine the imprecise aspiration levels of resources. For deneutrosophication, the neutrosophic
value is transformed into three intervals based on the truth, falsity, and indeterminacy-membership functions. en, a crisp value
is derived. Moreover, multi-choice goal programming is also used to get a crisp value. e proposed models seek to draw a
strategic plan and long-term vision for a healthcare organization. Accordingly, the specific aims of the proposed flexible models
are meant to evaluate hospital service performance and to establish an optimal plan to meet the growing patient needs. As a result,
sustainability’s economic and social goals will be achieved so that the total cost would be optimized, patients’ waiting time would
be reduced, high-quality services would be offered, and appropriate medical drugs would be provided. e simplicity and
feasibility of the proposed models are validated using real data collected from the Al-Amal Center for Oncology, Aden, Yemen.
e results obtained indicate the robustness of the proposed models, which would be valuable for planners who could guide
healthcare staff in providing the necessary resources for optimal annual planning.
1. Introduction
Optimizing existing resources in health organizations is
critical to meeting the needs of patients. At the same time,
organizations must develop a future strategic plan of the
existing resources commensurate with the predicted growth
in the number of patients. Optimization approaches can
support planning and decision-making at all levels. One of
these approaches is goal programming in resources plan-
ning. Goal programming is a multi-objective optimization
tool that helps a solution to move toward an ideal goal. In
recent years, the use of goal programming has become more
widespread, especially for analyzing and evaluating
healthcare organizations. Numerous authors have consid-
ered goal programming to optimize the resources in health
organizations. Parra et al. (1997) [1] proposed a goal pro-
gramming model to evaluate the performance of a surgical
service at a local general hospital. e authors aimed to
improve the service under the available resources—for ex-
ample, spatial occupation, staff availability, and financial
support. Munoz et al. (2018) [2] improved a mathematical
model based on goal programming to evaluate proposals in
order to help in the selection of a mix of proposals. e main
function of goal programming is the incorporation of
strategic goals that support the vision and objectives of
institutes. e model is applied using real data obtained from
the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at
Pennsylvania State University. Blake and Carter (2002) [3]
proposed two linear goal programming models. e first
model is used to determine case mix and volume for phy-
sicians under fixed service costs conditions. e second
model addresses case-mix decisions as a commensurate set
of practice changes for physicians. e trade-offs between
case-mix and case costs are balanced using the proposed
models and minimizing disturbance in order to preserve
physician income. Rifai and Pecenka (1990) [4] applied goal
programming to allocate resources in healthcare planning.
Minimizing idle capacity and maximizing the profit are the
main goals in this work. Kwak and Lee (2002) [5] proposed a
multi-criteria mathematical programming model to evaluate
Hindawi
Journal of Healthcare Engineering
Volume 2022, Article ID 3602792, 23 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/3602792