3. Case study
The diversification and expansion of specialized laboratories in Tehran
has led to increased activity in this field. According to the statistics
released by the Iranian Health Reference Laboratory, the volume of
laboratory services market in Tehran is 16.6% of the total share of the
country, which represents a significant contribution. The share of
medical diagnostic laboratories Tehran in the public and private sectors
is 29% and 71%, respectively. Considering the importance of the
private sector, the statistical population of this study consists of 25
private medical diagnostic laboratories in Tehran province.
After evaluating the performance of 25 units of laboratory, based on the
performance scores by Ghafari Someh et al. 8, the
laboratory units were divide into three clusters by using K-means
method. The results show that 10 laboratory units belong to the first
group, 5 laboratory units belong to the second group and 10 laboratory
units belong to the third group. Finally, the 10 laboratory units
belonging to the first group make up a laboratory network and 5
laboratory units in the second group use strategic planning to join the
network, and the 10 laboratory units in the third group have no chance
of joining the network and can be deleted. Table 2 and Figure 3 show
clustering of 25 laboratory units using the k-means method.
Table2. Clustering 25 medical diagnostic laboratories