Suzan Mora Dalen, MPA, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of QMetrics, Inc., a national healthcare consulting and advisory firm specializing in healthcare quality performance, regulatory compliance, data validation, accreditation, and operational transformation.
A first-generation Latina entrepreneur and healthcare industry leader, Suzan founded QMetrics in 2006 with a vision to bridge the gap between complex regulatory requirements and practical, sustainable healthcare operations.Over two decades, she has grown the company into a multidisciplinary organization serving health plans, provider organizations, medical groups, and healthcare data organizations nationwide. Her leadership has been instrumental in expanding QMetrics’ capabilities, developing new service lines, and establishing a reputation for technical excellence, innovation, and measurable results.
Suzan’s career spans the continuum of healthcare delivery, including physician practices, clinics, medical groups, hospital systems, and health plans. Her firsthand operational experience has provided a deep understanding of the regulatory, compliance, and organizational challenges that influence healthcare delivery and performance. As a Certified HEDIS Compliance Auditor for 19 years, she has personally conducted nearly 500 audits evaluating the integrity of healthcare data, quality measurement processes, and systems supporting Commercial, Medicaid, and Medicare programs. This experience has shaped her perspective on how reliable data can illuminate the quality of care delivered to populations, identify gaps in chronic disease management, preventive health, inpatient care, and utilization, and inform meaningful quality improvement.
National Industry Leadership and Innovation
One of Suzan’s most significant contributions to the healthcare industry is her leadership in QMetrics’ co-development of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Data Aggregator Validation (DAV) program. Selected by NCQA in 2019 to help develop the program, QMetrics contributed to the standards, methodologies, and validation protocols used to evaluate clinical data integrity and reliability. As the program’s sole validator nationwide, QMetrics validated more than 65,000 data streams through 2025. According to NCQA, DAV-validated data were included in more than 50% of HEDIS submissions, reflecting the growing importance of validated clinical data in national healthcare quality measurement.
Entrepreneurial Growth and Market Development
Suzan has guided QMetrics’ growth from a specialized consulting practice into a national advisory firm, expanding its service offerings, geographic reach, and client relationships. The company has reported growth exceeding 2,000% over a five-year period, with business development driven primarily through client referrals and long-standing relationships. QMetrics has achieved a reported 97% client retention rate and a 98% returning survey client rate, reflecting its commitment to client service and sustained engagement.
QMetrics has developed a particularly strong presence in California’s complex capitated and delegated healthcare environment, where organizations must navigate rigorous state and federal regulatory requirements. Under Suzan’s leadership, QMetrics became a California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC)-recognized vendor for Provider Appointment Availability surveys, expanding from no health plan clients in this specialized segment to serving more than 20 health plans over approximately eight years and achieving an estimated majority share of that defined market.
Building upon this success, Suzan has expanded QMetrics’ capabilities in designing, fielding, administering, and analyzing statistically rigorous regulatory and NCQA-aligned surveys. These include provider and member engagement assessments and rapid-cycle surveys that generate actionable insights to support continuous quality improvement.
Measurable Outcomes and Operational Transformation
Suzan’s leadership emphasizes the importance of translating regulatory requirements and data insights into measurable operational results. Through QMetrics’ encounter data completeness engagements, the firm has achieved a reported median improvement of 53%, helping organizations strengthen the reliability and completeness of data used for reporting and performance measurement.
In accreditation, Suzan has guided organizations through comprehensive readiness assessments and the implementation of sustainable processes, systems, and monitoring tools that support successful accreditation outcomes, including perfect survey scores. Her approach emphasizes integrating regulatory requirements into daily operations and establishing ongoing monitoring mechanisms that sustain compliance beyond the accreditation survey
She has also led the expansion of QMetrics’ delegation oversight and compliance capabilities, supporting healthcare organizations in establishing governance structures, oversight programs, monitoring methodologies, reporting tools, and corrective action processes that strengthen accountability across delegated functions.
Her operational leadership extends to supporting the establishment and implementation of a health plan, including the development of essential processes, regulatory compliance capabilities, and organizational infrastructure.
Vision and Leadership
As healthcare advances toward greater interoperability, Suzan is focused on elevating the importance of data integrity, championing proactive and meaningful regulatory and compliance monitoring, optimizing quality performance across the continuum of care, and developing sustainable systems that help healthcare organizations anticipate change rather than simply respond to it.
As a first-generation Latina entrepreneur, Suzan takes pride in representing women and underrepresented leaders in healthcare. She is committed to developing talented professionals, creating opportunities for future leaders, and cultivating a culture of technical excellence, accountability, curiosity, and innovative thinking.
An industry speaker and contributor to national conversations on healthcare quality, regulatory compliance, and data integrity, Suzan also serves on the Board of Directors of the Emilio Nares Foundation, supporting families of children facing life-threatening illnesses.
Suzan holds a Master of Public Administration with an emphasis in Healthcare Administration from the University of San Francisco and a bachelor’s degree in Social Ecology and Psychology from the University of California, Irvine.
Her leadership philosophy reflects a belief that meaningful healthcare improvement requires more than understanding complex requirements. It requires the experience to recognize what needs to change, the vision to develop effective solutions, and the discipline to deliver measurable, sustainable results.
