Within nursing, just as in any other career field, operational and financial decisions are made every day. Still, how are they made? What is it that leads to specific decisions being made and particular paths being chose over other available options? The answer is quite simple; information and data, of quality, is required, so that whoever is making the decisions can be most informed and make the most efficient decision for everyone involved.

Even with a particular mind set turned towards the healthcare industry and hospitalization, few people will argue that making haphazard choices, without appropriate attention being paid to the quality data and details, can simply lead to poor outcomes. Sometimes, it would even be better not to have made any choices at all.
So, as discussed, to make a valid and informed decision, people require information. “The process of finding and using information has costs for individuals in terms of effort, time and material resources. These costs are different for different people and impact on their use of information in different ways. Thus, the accessibility of information is important in ensuring those people who need to make choices can do so in an informed way,” (Baxter, 2008).

To sum up, Baxter is essentially saying that there is a cost benefit analysis everyone goes through, consciously or unconsciously, to reach a particular choice. Basically, it makes it so that the cost of that quality information, is truly of value the way one would figure. Regardless, if everyone were just to start going about making spontaneous, uninformed decisions, say about medications, or surgeries, a lot of incidents, including deaths, would ensue. As such, quality information is the key to quality healthcare.