We must develop management science capability
Have we ever fully considered how we make decisions, especially high level and strategic decisions that involve significant resource use?
In this regard there is an identified need for formal and routine application of management science, especially at senior levels of health service management. The health service in general has an abundance of data available to it in many service areas. Data sets, stand alone and otherwise, are used on a daily basis to inform decision making, including at senior level. There is now an argument that HSE needs to develop internal capacity for the formal application of management science, especially at senior and strategic level, where complex and costly plans are formulated and decisions taken on a daily basis. Such application quality assures decisions arrived at through sophisticated computer based mathematical formulae and analyses and ensures that such decisions/plans at strategic level are within the financial and other service constraints identified.
Targeted investment now, to develop this capacity within the health service management system, will allow for a high level of quality assured decision making at senior level and will engender confidence in those who are charged with responsibility for service delivery at senior level.
RICHARD DOOLEY
President HMI
