TITLE:
Leveraging Data-Driven Decision-Making to Enhance Healthcare Organizational Performance and Service Quality
AUTHORS:
Rushell L. Bryce, Caitlin Byrd
KEYWORDS:
Data-Driven Decision Making, Healthcare Management, Healthcare Performance, Service Quality, Quality Improvement, Performance Monitoring, Healthcare Leadership, Data Analytics, Transformational Leadership
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.14 No.6,
November
10,
2026
ABSTRACT: Data-driven decision-making (DDDM) is increasingly important in healthcare management as organizations seek to enhance organizational performance, service quality, patient outcomes, and resource utilization. This qualitative study examines DDDM within the Jamaican healthcare setting, where healthcare leaders operate within a resource-constrained environment and must use clinical, financial, operational, and patient-experience data to inform managerial decisions and service delivery. Although healthcare organizations may have access to substantial amounts of data, data availability alone does not guarantee effective decision-making. Leaders must analyze relevant information, monitor performance indicators, identify service-delivery gaps, and translate findings into evidence-based strategies. The study explores how healthcare leaders in Jamaica use DDDM to support strategic planning, quality improvement, resource allocation, performance monitoring, and organizational accountability. Findings indicate that effective use of data enables healthcare leaders to identify trends, assess performance, monitor service delivery, and implement timely interventions. However, barriers such as inadequate data quality, limited data access, technological limitations, organizational culture, and gaps in leadership and data-analytic competencies may constrain effective data use. Strengthening data literacy, analytical capacity, data governance, and an evidence-based organizational culture may help healthcare leaders translate data into actionable strategies to improve organizational performance and service quality. The implications of these findings are particularly relevant to healthcare organizations in Jamaica. They may be transferable to other healthcare settings only where organizational, technological, leadership, and resource conditions are sufficiently comparable.