Most groups know their quality performance by the shape of the curve: flat from January to February, a steep climb through the chart-chase, then flat again. The final number is often acceptable. The underlying care is not what the number implies.
Retrieval is not improvement
A supplemental data chase finds care that already happened and was not captured. That is legitimate, valuable, and completely distinct from closing a gap. Conflating the two produces an organisation that is excellent at documentation and unchanged at care delivery.
The tell is simple: if the hybrid rate improves substantially while the administrative rate does not, the work was retrieval.
Flattening the curve
- Report administrative and supplemental rates separately, every month, to the same audience.
- Set monthly closure targets rather than an annual one.
- Capture structured data at the point of care so the chase has less to find.
- Put the measure’s exclusion criteria in front of the clinician before the visit, not after.
The measures worth prioritising
High volume, clear action
Screening measures with an unambiguous next step reward sustained effort. They are also the ones patients experience as useful rather than administrative.
Measures with long windows
Anything with a twelve-month look-back can be worked throughout the year. Leaving these to the final quarter is the single most common source of the March spike.
