My medical team leader is on an extended break, there isn’t anybody else to write the important Monthly Medical Report (MMR), and as the last Mental Health Activities Manager (MHAM) left their role, there is the Mental Health Monthly Report (MHMR) to write as well.

My naivete about reports also leaves me wondering why these particular statistics are chosen, and why some are monitored so frequently (though may change very little) when we are not really sure if the changes are meaningful until we review several months’ changes and others (which I know from the project’s annual plan we hope to achieve) are not currently being monitored at all.

I worry that we are contributing to a culture in which we are measured by the things that are easily measured, rather than looking at whether we are delivering quality by occasionally delving more fully into particular areas.

We should measure and analyze using appropriate tools, and then the local team should discuss these results, suggest small changes, and then implement them.

This cycle keeps repeating: collecting more carefully chosen data, analyzing, changing and planning, to try to see whether the changes made have resulted in enough progress. The evidence on changing complex systems is that you need to adapt and review rather than looking for a single change that will bring resolution.

Read the full article on data by Mike Tomson at Doctors Without Borders