An analytic hierarchy process-based framework to support outsourcing decisions on hospital sterilisation

The study investigates the opportunity to outsource, partially or totally, the sterilisation service of a hospital. It proposes a framework, based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), to support the choice of the most effective configuration of the service when multiple criteria are considered. First, the sterilisation process was subdivided into stages that could be managed by the hospital (insourced) or outsourced. The feasible configurations obtained by combining insourced and outsourced stages were then evaluated by means of an AHP model that was validated by the participants to the decision process. The framework can be used in different settings, but the criteria must be validated in the each specific case. Further applications to real cases are needed to test it in different contexts, especially if characterised by different organisation structures.