Muhandisī-i bihdāsht-i ḥirfah/ī (Dec 2023)
Risk Assessment of Anesthesiology using Hybrid AHP-CoCoSo
Abstract
Background and Objective: Anesthesiologists are exposed to significant risks due to advancements in the techniques of anesthesia and surgery, the emergence of modern equipment and drugs, as well as increased responsibilities and expectations. Therefore, the present study aimed to provide a model for assessing the risks and hazards existing in this profession. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive study. Initially, various sources, including interviews with three experts and reviews of articles, were used to extract occupational risks in the field of anesthesiology. Subsequently, the study criteria, including consequence, probability, and exposure, were determined, and the weighting of these criteria was calculated using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. Finally, the prioritization of different risks was determined using the combined compromise solution (CoCoSo) method. Results: Based on the weights of criteria using the AHP method, consequence with a weight of 0.43 was the most important criterion, while exposure with a weight of 0.27 was the least important criterion in this study. Furthermore, among the investigated risks, inhaling anesthetic gases while wearing a mask and filling a vaporizer (R5) was selected as the most dangerous risk, followed by skin contact with scrubs or blood, patient's secretions, and infected tissues (R1), as well as needle sticking during venipuncture and patient's spinal anesthesia (R12), which were selected as the second and third most dangerous risks in anesthesiology, respectively. Conclusion: In this study, the consequence was identified as the most important criterion, and the risks of inhaling anesthetic gases during mask ventilation and filling the vaporizer were determined to be the most significant occupational risks in anesthesiology. Furthermore, it was established that the proposed method can be used for risk assessment and prioritization of occupational hazards in anesthesiology and other professions.
