A study of the decision-making processes of hospital administrative and financial staff using electroencephalography

The capacity for individual decision-making, as a cognitive process, is of critical importance to the effective and efficient management of healthcare organisations. Despite the existence of studies conducted in diverse fields, including economics, finance, and marketing, which have sought to quantify individual decision-making behaviour through the analysis of brain signals, no study has yet employed this methodology within the context of healthcare management. The objective of this study was to examine the electrophysiological responses of the brain during the decision-making processes of healthcare professionals employed in the administrative and financial departments of hospitals. Furthermore, the aim was to identify the rational and intuitive decision-making behaviours exhibited by these professionals through both discourse and practice. The study included a total of 56 participants, comprising 32 females and 24 males, all of whom were employed in administrative and financial roles within hospital settings. The study was conducted in three phases. The initial phase employed a qualitative research methodology. In this initial phase, the data gathered from interviews with hospital administrative and financial managers was subjected to analysis. The decisions to be used in the discourse and practice analysis were identified, as well as the words and practices related to the outcomes of errors observed in the decision-making process. In the second phase, the questionnaire was employed to identify the characteristics of rational and intuitive decision-making through the utilisation of quantitative methods. The final stage involved experimental procedures. In this phase, a paradigm was developed to measure intuitive and rational decision-making under the influence of verbalism. This paradigm also includes rational decision-making questions applied during the implementation of document examples related to behaviours that carry the risk of causing financial damage to hospitals. The brain signals obtained from the recordings were analysed using the event-related oscillations method. The following statistical methods were employed in the analyses: descriptive statistics, repeated measures t-test, repeated measures ANOVA, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The analyses were conducted with a 95% confidence interval (p=0.05). In the EEG analyses, delta and theta responses were employed. Delta responses are primarily associated with the processes of instant decision-making, intuition, and attention allocation. They tend to increase in the frontal, central, and parietal regions of the brain during cognitive tasks. Theta responses are primarily associated with working memory capacity, which in turn is linked to the number of items that need to be remembered. They facilitate the formation of memory associations and the recall of information acquired from past experiences. This lends support to the notion that such processes facilitate decision-making. The findings of the evaluation of rational and intuitive decision-making behaviours revealed significant differences in delta and theta responses, both across brain regions and in relation to question types. The reaction times observed during the implementation of rational decision-making differ based on the influence of lexicality, with variations evident between intuitive and rational decision-making types. In comparison to males, females demonstrate greater engagement of the parietal and temporal regions of the brain during lexical decision-making, whereas males exhibit greater central brain engagement. The power analysis findings indicate that, while no significant response is observed in any brain region during decision-making under the influence of lexicality, a theta response emerges in the frontal regions during rational decision-making behaviour in the implementation phase. The results of the study indicate that gender disparities and regional cerebral activity can be leveraged in the decision-making process. Consequently, EEG experiments can be utilised in the selection of personnel for roles that necessitate critical decision-making abilities. Furthermore, the outcomes of these experiments can inform the development of career pathways for employees.