A method and apparatus for collecting management information on a communication network enables universal health indicators to be defined so that management information may be presented to a network operator on a management station. The universal health indicators may be defined in a top-down manner such that the definitions of the health indicators may be used across multiple network elements without changing the health indicator definitions. The health indicators may be organized in a tree-like hierarchical structure to enable additional information to be obtained about the health of the reporting network element in a predictable and organized fashion. Network element raw measurements and computed measurements are used to provide data to the health indicators, and are selected on a network technology type or MIB type basis to enable the same health indicators to be supported by multiple network technology types.