2027 Building a Measurement Selection Memo for Administrators
Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist
Administrators often have more possible quality measures than their teams can collect, validate, and improve. A measurement selection memo turns that crowded list into a defensible recommendation: what to measure, why it matters, where the data will come from, and what could make the results misleading. This guide is for healthcare managers and aspiring administrators who need to write or assess such a memo. It also explains when healthcare administration coursework can strengthen the skills behind the decision - and when focused training may be enough.
Key Things You Should Know
- A strong memo specifies the measure, eligible population, data source, decision owner, and limitations - not just a metric's name.
- Select measures for a defined improvement decision; an accreditation or reporting requirement alone does not make a metric useful for every local purpose.
- The median annual wage across all U.S. management occupations was $126,520 in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; that broad figure is not a healthcare measurement salary or a degree outcome.
What is a measurement selection memo in healthcare administration?
A measurement selection memo is a short decision document recommending which performance measure an organization should use for a stated purpose. It records the alternatives considered, the proposed measure's definition, its data and reporting requirements, and the reason an authorized leader should approve it. Its audience may include clinical leaders, quality teams, analysts, finance staff, and compliance personnel.
The memo is not the dashboard or the improvement plan. It comes earlier: it establishes whether a measure can answer the question the organization is asking. For example, a clinic concerned about follow-up after an elevated blood-pressure reading might compare a measure of completed follow-up with a measure of blood-pressure control. The first is closer to a scheduling and care-coordination process the clinic can change; the second reflects a broader outcome influenced by treatment, patient circumstances, and time.
New administrators should work with clinicians and data specialists rather than infer a clinical definition on their own. Professionals entering healthcare from another sector may find MHA degree options for applicants changing sectors useful when deciding whether they need broader preparation.
How do administrators identify the right healthcare quality measures?
Start with the decision, not a convenient field in the electronic health record (EHR). Specify the care setting, patient group, problem, and action the organization could take if performance changes. Then search applicable payer, regulatory, accreditation, and recognized measure specifications before proposing a locally defined metric. An existing measure may improve comparability, but only if its population and rules fit the intended use.
A practical selection sequence keeps clinical value and feasibility in view:
- State the improvement aim and who can act on the result.
- Identify candidate outcome, process, and balancing measures; ask clinicians what each would and would not reveal.
- Check each candidate's current specification, eligible population, exclusions, and intended setting.
- Test whether source data can produce the measure consistently, including across relevant patient groups.
- Recommend the smallest set that supports a decision, and document why alternatives were rejected.
In the blood-pressure example, completed follow-up might be the primary process measure, while blood-pressure control provides longer-term context. Neither should be selected merely because it is easy to count. Administrators building this skill from the ground up can compare affordable bachelor's pathways in healthcare administration with shorter, employer-provided quality-improvement training.
What criteria should a healthcare measurement selection memo include?
The memo should let a reviewer reproduce the calculation and understand the trade-off. A one-page recommendation can be sufficient when its supporting measure specification and validation notes are attached or clearly identified.
Use the following items as a drafting checklist; each one addresses a reason an apparently sensible measure might fail in practice:
- Decision and rationale: Name the problem, intended use, accountable leader, and action a change in results could prompt.
- Measure definition: State the numerator, denominator, time window, exclusions, unit of analysis, and specification version where applicable.
- Clinical and patient relevance: Explain why the result reflects meaningful care or an important step toward it.
- Data and validation: Identify source systems, data owner, extraction method, missing-data checks, and a plan to compare sample records with calculated results.
- Interpretation: Note case-mix or risk-adjustment needs, possible reporting delays, and whether results can be compared fairly across sites or groups.
- Implementation: Assign reporting frequency, review authority, resource needs, and a date to reconsider the measure.
For the clinic example, a recommendation could select "completed follow-up after an eligible elevated reading," subject to a clinician-approved definition of eligibility and timing. The memo should explicitly say if the EHR records an appointment but cannot confirm that the visit occurred. That limitation changes what the result means. Programs with applied projects may offer practice writing this kind of recommendation; compare healthcare administration graduate study within a one-year format against the time needed for a substantive project, rather than assuming a faster degree supplies deeper measurement experience.
Accreditation, regulation, and payer contracts can determine which measures an organization must report. Administrators should distinguish a required external measure from a locally selected improvement measure. The former must follow the applicable specification; the latter should answer a specific operational question. One measure may serve both purposes, but that needs to be established rather than assumed.
Before recommending a required measure, confirm the current standard, reporting period, population, and responsible entity with the organization's compliance or quality team. Do not quietly alter its definition to make it more useful locally. If a modified version is needed for internal learning, label it separately so leaders do not mistake it for the reportable result.
Educational accreditation is a different question. CAHME accreditation concerns eligible healthcare management education programs, not the validity of an individual hospital metric. Students comparing graduate programs can use CAHME accreditation in online MHA program selection as one program-quality consideration while still inspecting the actual analytics coursework.
The best source is the one that captures the defined event accurately for the eligible population - not necessarily the largest database. EHR records, claims, registries, patient reports, and operational systems answer different questions, and combining them requires attention to patient matching, timing, and access permissions.
This comparison shows the main strengths and limitations to test before naming a source in a memo:
| Data source | Useful for | Important limitation |
| EHR clinical records | Documented encounters, orders, results, and care processes | Documentation practices and incomplete fields can distort counts. |
| Insurance claims | Billed services across participating providers | Claims arrive after care and may lack clinical detail. |
| Clinical registries | Condition-specific tracking under defined rules | Coverage depends on participation and data submission. |
| Patient surveys | Reported experience or outcomes | Response patterns can affect representativeness. |
| Scheduling and staffing systems | Access, capacity, and operational processes | A scheduled service is not necessarily a completed service. |
An analyst should check completeness and reconcile a sample of source records before leaders treat a new rate as a performance baseline. Readers deciding between an administrative and a more data-focused degree can explore comparing healthcare administration coursework with HIM coursework; health information management often concentrates more directly on health data governance and records.
Choose a format based on the work you need to practice, not the delivery label. For measurement selection, ask whether students define measures, analyze imperfect healthcare data, defend recommendations to stakeholders, and receive feedback from faculty with relevant experience. A campus program may make some team projects easier to schedule; an online program may reduce travel. Neither format alone establishes the quality of its applied work.
For each program, verify live-session times, group-project expectations, required site visits, access to datasets or software, project supervision, and whether working students can use an employer-based project. Also compare total tuition and mandatory fees against employer assistance and the time you can realistically commit. If entry timing affects your employment plans, review choosing a healthcare administration program around its start dates; a convenient start date is useful only if the course schedule remains workable.
Useful courses combine healthcare quality and patient safety with statistics, health informatics, operations, finance, and organizational change. Look beyond course titles: a strong assignment asks students to define a population, evaluate data quality, distinguish correlation from improvement, and explain a recommendation to people who will use it. An MBA healthcare concentration may add broad budgeting and management skills, but a relevant elective is not the same as a specialized measurement curriculum.
Match academic depth to the task. A course or certificate may be enough to improve an administrator's next memo; an MHA or specialized analytics degree may suit someone taking responsibility for a quality program. Doctoral study generally serves a different aim, such as advanced research or organizational leadership. If considering that route, examine doctoral healthcare administration duration and project requirements rather than treating a dissertation or doctoral project as necessary preparation for routine measure selection.
Requirements depend on the degree and institution. Bachelor's programs have their own undergraduate entry and transfer-credit policies. MHA and MBA programs generally require a bachelor's degree, but policies on work experience, prerequisite coursework, entrance tests, and recommendations vary. A nonbusiness degree does not automatically rule out graduate study; applicants should check whether they need preparation in statistics, accounting, or healthcare terminology.
Before applying, request the current admissions requirements and a course plan showing when analytics and applied projects occur. Ask whether prior healthcare experience is required, recommended, or unnecessary. For doctoral study, scrutinize research preparation, the proposed project or dissertation, and faculty fit; review online healthcare management doctorate programs only if that advanced scope matches your goals. Admissions eligibility is not evidence that a program will teach the particular measurement methods your job requires.
Measurement work appears in quality improvement, clinical operations, population health, performance reporting, and health-system management. A quality analyst may define and validate metrics; a quality manager may use them to prioritize changes and coordinate teams. Senior administrators must also weigh costs, clinical priorities, and accountability. Moving between these roles depends on experience and employer expectations, not a degree title alone.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a $126,520 median annual wage for all management occupations in May 2025. That figure spans many industries and management jobs; it is not the median for healthcare quality analysts, healthcare administrators, or graduates of an MHA or MBA. Use compensation for your target role and location - not the broad management median - when weighing a degree's cost. To establish the education side of that comparison, compare tuition for healthcare administration master's programs alongside fees, time away from work, and available employer support.
What certifications and job outlook apply to healthcare measurement professionals?
Credentials in healthcare quality, health information, project management, or analytics can signal focused skills, but eligibility and employer preferences vary by certification and role. Check the issuing body's current experience and examination rules before paying for preparation. A certification may help an experienced employee formalize a specialty; it does not replace demonstrated ability to validate data, work with clinicians, and explain limitations.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects management occupations overall to grow faster than the average for all occupations from 2025 to 2035, with about 1.1 million openings per year on average from growth and replacement needs. Those openings cover management across the economy, not healthcare measurement positions specifically. For a realistic next step, compare postings for the role you want with your current responsibilities, then decide whether an employer project, certification, targeted course, or graduate degree best closes the gap. A broader guide to planning a career in healthcare administration can help place measurement work within longer-term career options.
Other Things You Should Know About Healthcare Administration
Approval should come from the leader accountable for using the result, with clinical, quality, data, and compliance review as appropriate. The organization's governance process determines the final sign-off.
Keep the recommendation brief enough for decision-makers to read, but attach or reference the full specification and validation notes. Completeness matters more than a fixed page count.
Review it when the care priority, specification, or data source changes - or when results no longer inform a decision. Preserve required external reporting even if a measure is retired from an internal dashboard.
They may be able to use it within approved job duties and organizational safeguards. Confirm access, privacy, security, and data-sharing requirements before extracting or distributing patient-level information.
- Cost and Resource Use Measures Overview | cms.gov https://mmshub.cms.gov/about-quality/types/cost-and-resource-use-measures/overview
- Strategies to implement evidence-informed decision making at the organizational level: a rapid systematic review - PMC https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10983660/
- Quality: Traditional MIPS Requirements - QPP https://qpp.cms.gov/reporting-requirements/ways-to-report/traditional-mips/quality
- 5 FAH-1 H-310 USING MEMORANDA | state.gov https://fam.state.gov/fam/05fah01/05fah010310.html
- Drafting a Law Office Memorandum | CUNY School of Law https://www.law.cuny.edu/academics/academic-resources-support/legal-writing-center/student-resources/drafting-a-law-office-memorandum/
- HEDIS Measures and Technical Resources | NCQA https://www.ncqa.org/hedis/measures/
- 3 Evidence-Based Decisions | itrcweb.org https://qcmr-1.itrcweb.org/3-evidence-based-decisions/
- A Foolproof Guide for Identifying and Selecting Measures | thinkhdi.com https://www.thinkhdi.com/library/supportworld/2018/foolproof-guide-identifying-selecting-measures
