Clinical decision making--what every non-clinician manager should know but was never taught

The management of a health care system requires making decisions and establishing policies that can affect the process of patient care. Clinicians often complain that these decisions and policies are made by people without clinical training. Clinical knowledge is not a prerequisite for a career in health policy or management. Even graduates of accredited health administration programs are not required to understand the process of clinical decision making or the nature of medical practice. Much of the health services literature advocates a shared decision-making model for clinicians and managers. However, most of the literature focuses on how to involve physicians in management decision making; almost none discusses management involvement in clinical decisions. This paper briefly examines how non-clinician managers can support the clinical decision-making process and then specifies the knowledge and skills required for them to play this role.