278 Asian J. Management Science and Applications, Vol. 1, No. 3, 2014 Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Evaluating and selecting hospital locations using fuzzy multicriteria decision making Santoso Wibowo School Engineering and Technology, Central Queensland University, 108 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia Fax: +61-(0)3-9639-4800 E-mail: s.wibowo1@cqu.edu.au Abstract: The hospital location evaluation and selection process is complex and challenging owing to the multi-dimensional nature of the process and the presence of uncertainty and imprecision inherent in the decision making process. To ensure effective decisions are made, this paper presents a new approach for evaluating and selecting hospital locations. The evaluation problem is formulated as a multicriteria decision making problem, and a fuzzy multicriteria decision making algorithm is developed for evaluating and selecting hospital location alternatives. Linguistic terms approximated by fuzzy numbers are used to represent the subjective assessments of the decision maker. To avoid the complex and unreliable process of comparing fuzzy numbers usually required in fuzzy multicriteria decision making, a new algorithm is developed based on the concept of ideal solutions. A hospital location selection problem is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach. Keywords: performance evaluation; fuzzy multicriteria decision making; hospital location; uncertainty and imprecision. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Wibowo, S. (2014) ‘Evaluating and selecting hospital locations using fuzzy multicriteria decision making’, Asian J. Management Science and Applications, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp.278–291. Biographical notes: Santoso Wibowo is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at the School of Engineering and Technology, Central Queensland University, Australia. He holds a Master degree in Information Systems, a Master degree of Business, and a PhD in Business Information Systems. His research interests include intelligent information systems, multicriteria decision analysis, knowledge management, and their applications for management decision making. This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled ‘A preference-based approach to fuzzy multicriteria decision making evaluation of hospital locations’ presented at the Asian Conference of Management Science and Applications, Sichuan, China, 7–10 September 2012.