Article compares 2 techniques for ranking the balance between institutional care and alternative home and community-based services in state long-term care systems: Simple Multiattribute Rating Technique Exploiting Ranks (SMARTER) and Classification and Ranking Belief Simplex (CaRBS). While the SMARTER techniques is used primarily for comparative purposes, greater emphasis is placed on elucidating CaRBS, which operates in the presence of ignorance or partial knowledge concerning the evidence accrued from the attributes. CaRBS offers 4 appealing features for health policy analysis: (1) the capacity to rank using either of 2 confidence measures, (2) a systematic approach to managing missing data, (3) the production of stable rankings, and (4) the simplex plot method of data representation. The issues of rank order stability and the management of missing data, as well as the long-term care policy implications, are discussed in relation to the 2 techniques.

Abstract taken from http://www.naric.com/nidrr/grantees/record.cfm?search=2&rec;=102972

This document be ordered through NARIC's document delivery service: http://www.naric.com/nidrr/grantees/record.cfm?search=2&rec;=102972