The Use of Evidence by Decision-Making Committees

By evidence, we mean systematic and extensive studies conducted to enhance knowledge and evidence-based policymaking (EBP), or evidence-based decision-making, an approach that helps individuals make decisions with more information and use the best evidence to establish, implement, and develop policies.1 Evidence-based policymaking is a complex of methods giving information to the process of policymaking rather than directly affecting the policies’ probable goals. It is based on the idea that, in decision making, the existing information evidence should be exploited; moreover, the information used should have logical analysis.2 Hospital centers are the pillars of the health system in each country, and reforming the health sector without addressing such community centers and improving their performance would not be possible.3
One policy of the Ministry of Health for providing better performance and improving services in hospitals both qualitatively and quantitatively is to set up hospital committees. The hospital manager needs to establish hospital committees to plan, organize, guide, and control hospital activities.4 Groups and committees are usually set up to coordinate activities or accomplish a certain goal. Committees play a significant role in following up on the procedure of improving hospital services and the regular and continuous assessment of hospital activities; they are established to strengthen functions and solve all existing problems and hardships.5 Since hospital committees are regarded by hospital managers and owners as think tanks and as the advisory and decision-making arms of hospitals, obviously, optimal decisions made by such a committeecan be effective in achieving the goals of the hospital and correcting its problems. Therefore, it is suggested that evidence from other countries on the issue of decision-making should initially be assessed with regard to the economic, social, and political conditions of the country. Furthermore, the conditions dominating in a hospital must be considered in making the final decision.