Clinical policy decisions refer to a series of decisions made about a given patient, on the basis of observation of the patient and/or direct knowledge, in relation to a specific medication option and interventions available (Mercer et al, 2018). On the other hand, administrative policy decisions also refer to a series of decisions made but not about a patient as in the case of a clinical decision but about an organization and delivery of health care services. Specifically, healthcare personnel has well-structured methods of making decisions which conform to clinical policy decisions. Such decisions are usually pre-fabricated by a team of professionals (Megan, et. al., 2014).
As seen previously, a surgeon’s choice of a given technique for a particular operation has been conditioned by prior decisions, such as the number and types of operating rooms available, types of equipment purchased, the quality and mix of surgical assistants and nursing staff, and the organization of the operating room schedule itself. The surgeon’s decision may also be influenced by prior decisions made by the hospital’s quality assurance committee (Megan, et. al., 2014). In brief, “micro” decisions involving individual clinical judgment and “macro” decisions involving larger organization-wide resource allocation and policy issues are highly interrelated. The nature of physician involvement in hospital decision making must be understood within this context (Megan, et. al., 2014). An example of an administrative policy decision is the one applied by the healthcare management to curb the rise of the rate of hospitalization and readmission in Hospital. The decision might involve recommendation of a healthcare project to deal with the challenge. The objectives should be inclined towards lowering the rate of hospitalization and re-admission. The overall goal should be to improve the efficiency of healthcare hence cutting down the expenses involved in Medicare.
The decision might involve a children’s services program, which entails pre-natal care provision project for expectant mothers, new-borne immunization project and a developmental testing project for pre-school children. Furthermore, a telehealth program can be proposed in an administrative decision in bid of expanding health network telehealth services which involves creation of a teledermatology service line, a telepsychology service line and a tele-stroke service line, each telemedicine service line being a component of administrative policy decision on its own but involving different groups of locations and providers while still, each service line remains to be part of the decision (Megan, et. al., 2014). The phase that follows administrative decision-making process is execution and can be defined as the process of putting in action the work that has been defined in the final decision and plan in order to achieve the goals of the project scope statement. Both clinical policy decisions and administrative policy decisions are relevant in a healthcare setup. I can say that administrative decisions underpin the clinical decision. For example, for doctors to make and implement clinical decisions, there is a need for a clear framework of services as well as infrastructure. This is where administrative decisions play a big role. Specifically, they prepare a good platform on which healthcare professionals can perform their respective roles (Megan, et. al., 2014).
