Emergency Service of the University Hospital of Algarve in Faro: A Contribution of the DISTATIS Method to Classify and Prioritize its Main Issues and Challenges
Events occurring in hospital emergency services tend to be of a chaotic and
complex nature, giving rise to unique challenges, mainly in the fields of finance
management, equipment, workloads and human resources. The research here
presented addresses the issue, first by determining the top ten problems and
challenges facing the Emergency Service of the University Hospital of Algarve in
Faro and second by underlining perceptions and associated levels of importance
attributed by an in-house group of specialists that assist on the unit's
management process. Data was collected in two phases a) a brainstorming
exercise with work-shift leaders for generation of opinions and ideas regarding the
evaluation of the top ten problems; b) presentation of the top ten issues to a
panel of experts who, on an individual basis, classified, categorized and ranked
them. Collected data was of a multidimensional nature and it was later analysed
using an innovative three-way technique, the DISTATIS method (Abdi et al., 2005;
Abdi et al., 2007). In our evaluation of the expert responses, we highlighted
experts whose options were characterized by similarities and differences and
others with stable and unstable opinions. Final results provided information on
opposition and coherence among the experts, identifying common themes and
problems relevant to the organization's management and decision processes
