The problem of “cooking” the data is hardly confined to healthcare.

Any time you are evaluating the performance of an organization with specific metrics you are giving people an incentive to play with the numbers.

Examples that come to mind are:

Recording order shipments that take place on the first day of the month in the prior month to kick up the order numbers for that month.

Carrying obsolete parts that can never be sold in finished goods inventory instead of writing them off because they don’t want the expense to depress profits.

Carrying uncollectable receivables on the books as assets instead of writing them off because they don’t want the expense to depress profits.

Two different manufacturing shifts recording production of materials that were in progress at the end shift so that both get credit for it, resulting in inflated production and inventory value.

Police recording reported serious crimes as minor crimes to make crime statistics look better.

Government budgets that vastly underestimate future spending and overestimate tax collections to make it appear that the budget is balanced.