FACTORS AFFECTING THE DECISION MAKING PROCESS IN HEALTHCARE INSTITUTIONS
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Original research
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n  health  care  organizations,  decision  making  is  very  complicated  and  could  be  of  both clinical and  nonclinical  nature. Decision towards patients  is usually  associated with multiple factors  including   economic   ones,   in   addition   to   several   treatment   options. Leaders   and managers  in  healthcare  organizations  have  to  adapt  significant  pressure  to  make  difficult operational   and   budgetary   decisions   by   maximizing   operational   efficiency   and   reducing unnecessary  costs  while  improving  and  maintaining  high  quality.  Several  factors  influence decision  making  in  healthcare  organizations.  Because  of  that  it  is  imperative  to  identify  and understand  factors  that  positively  or  negatively  influence  the  decision  making  process  in  such critical and sensitive forms.The  purpose  of  this  study  is  to  determine  and  examine  factors  that  affect  decision making  process  in  Healthcare  Organizations.  A  meta-analytic  study  was  done  to  identify  the most  cited  factors  affecting  the  decision  making  process   in  the  last  five  year  throughout searching   and  screening   the   literature   using   Ankara   University   Electronic   Library,  The Pub  Med,  SAGEM Library,  Google  Scholar.  Time  period  for  scanning  was  between  October2014  and  February  2015.  First,  all  of  the  articles  were  tabulated  according  to  the  year  of publication,  the  Author  and  the  resulted  factors  influencing  the  decision  making  process  in health  care  organizations.  A  lot  of  studies  were  found  related  to  our  key  words  of  interests but  many  of  them  were  talking about  the  factors  affecting  the  decision  making  process  from a  clinical  perspective  and  only articles  talking  about  the  process  from  a  managerial  point  of view    were    included  in    our    study.  As  a  result  48  articles  were  included  as  they  met  our research  criteria.  Articles  of  interest  were  collected,  gathered  and  tabulated  according  to  the resulted  factors  affecting  the  decision  making  process   in   health   care   organizations.   The following   keywords   were   helpful   in   articles   pickup   process   (Healthcare   organizations, Decision Making, Process, Impact and Factors).During  the  last  five  years  Knowledge  based  decision  making,  Informative  decision making  and  training  effect  on  decision  making  were  the  most  cited  factors  14/48  studies. Followed  by   11   studies   mentioned  the   organizational  and   institutional  factor,   7   studies considered  the  using  of  specific  models  for  decision  making  and  decision  supporting  tool  a great  and  a  helpful  factor  in  the  decision  making  process.  The  characteristic  of  the  decision maker  as  an  influencing  factor  took  a  part  in  three  studies  and  was  equal  to  the  financial resources which were  also  taken  in  consideration  in  3  studies  also.  The  timelines  of  decisions, the  delegation  of  decisions,  and  shared  decision  making  factors  came  to  play  in  one  to  two studies.Decision  making  in  health  care  organizations  is  a  complicated  process  because  it  is of   both  clinical  and  non-clinical  nature.  According  to  findings,  knowledge  and  evidence informed decision  making  (EBDM)  was  the  most  cited  factor  to  influence  the  decision  making process   in  health  care  organizations.  However, “the  most  cited”  doesn’t mean “the  most important”.  Beside  this  the  use  of  information  and  communication  technologies  and  decision support   tools,   the   environmental   and   institutional   factors,   the   financial   factors   and   the delegation  of decisions were also important factors to discuss in this context.

Journal
Title
Raya Sawalha
Publisher
Academy of Strategic Management
Publisher Country
United States of America
Publication Type
Both (Printed and Online)
Volume
14
Year
2015
Pages
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