The hospital manager and game theory: chess master, poker player, or cooperative game player?

Abstract

Hospital management can be seen as a game, and doctors, nurses, and health maintenance organizations are its players. The astute hospital manager realizes the interdependence of individual career strategies and the hospital's success, just as players in a game are interdependent on each other. Managers familiar with game theory may successfully transfer that knowledge to the hospital realm. They may recognize patterns and calculate outcomes like chess players, bluff other hospitals into folding services as poker players do, and cooperate with their own team to maximize productivity. Knowledge of game theory may also make the hospital manager's job.