Application of Brim’s and Simon’s Sequential Decision Theories in Healthcare Administration

Abstract

As part of the learning process, many episodes in life become routine and habitual with people no longer deliberately paying attention to their behaviors. When individuals come across situations they have encountered before, their response would be the one they have come to know as the best response from previous experience. However, when the situation is new or previous solutions cannot be applied successfully; routine selection of an action will not be possible. In such a case, a decision making process is applied to the identification of the problem and goes through a number of phases  eventually ending with the performance of one or more actions based on the available information. Various decision making tools informed by decision theories exist and readily available for the healthcare administrator. This essay will describe the sequential decision theories of Simon (as cited in Hansson, 2005) and Brim et al. (1962) in healthcare decision making and discuss their application in health care settings.

Key Words: Decision making, health care, Simon’s Decision theory, Brim’s Decision Theory, decision analysis.