Introduction Dr. David Eddy states within his ‘Anatomy of a Decision’ article that the “quality of medical care is determined by two main factors: the quality of the decisions that determine what actions are taken and the quality with which those actions are executed - what to do and how to do it.” He presents his argument in such a way that it explains how the quality of care will suffer if say the correct or wrong actions are chosen and the execution of those actions either are successfully executed or flawed - these will have an impact on the decision quality (p.441). In my opinion, I agree with Dr. Eddy’s argument as the following methods - PROACTIVE, SMART and the Markov Model - will discussed and how they play a role in improving decision …show more content…
This mnemonic consists of the following terms: Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time Bound. This method describes the key characteristics of the objectives: Specific, outlines the concrete, detailed and well defined; Measureable, consists of the numbers, quantity and comparison; Achievable, the feasible and actionable; Realistic, considers resources; and Time bound, establishing a defined timeline (Ambler, (2006), p.1). George Ambler also states within his article that this mnemonic is just the stepping stones of the quest to reach certain goals (2006). This method will ultimately help guide healthcare professionals in brainstorming solutions for any type of scenarios. This method will also improve the way that complex situations are handled. For example, most physicians - who have years of experience - when faced with a situation that they have come across before, would make a decision without thinking of the possible consequences. This is form of decision making is known as the recognized primed decisions (Del, (2006), p.11). Physicians do not realize that not all patients who encounter a similar situation would need the same decision on treatment. On the other hand, this method could improve the quality of decisions if healthcare professionals utilize this accurately. The final method - the Markov Model - can also improve decision …show more content…
Sonnenberg states that the Markov Model is mostly used when a decision that involves a certain percentage of risk that is ongoing over time (1993, p.322). Basically the Markov Model is a decision tree-like diagram that outlines all the possible solutions and the consequences of each solution. In addition to the diagram, it provides the probabilities of taking a certain route to a solution. This would help healthcare professionals in determining the best solutions for their patients, as well as providing the highest quality of the outcome based on their decision. There are a couple of examples that the Markov Model can be seen used: the risk of hemorrhage while on anticoagulant therapy, the risk of rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, and the risk of mortality in any person - whether they are sick or healthy (Sonnenberg, (1993), p.322). These examples provide statistical information to the healthcare professional which would then enable them to come to a decision and also provide high quality based on that decision. Since the Markov Model, and possibly other models like it, provides statistical information, this method can be used to improve decision quality by documenting and storing various results. Once that information is stored away, it can be used in the future to compare trendlines and possibly come up with better solutions based on the information. Therefore, the Markov Model can be one of