Source Authority
How should source-of-truth rules be documented?
Last reviewed
Direct answer
Document each authority rule as a short, specific record: the measure or field, the decision it supports, the authoritative source, the comparison sources, how disagreements are resolved, the owner, the approval date and the review date. Keep these records where the governed numbers are produced, not in a separate policy document that drifts out of date.
Why this happens
Rules kept apart from the data stop matching what the systems actually do, and nobody notices until a dispute.
A specific record per rule can be tested. A broad policy statement cannot.
Example: authority depends on the decision
Clinical system
Authoritative for level of care
Assessments are recorded and signed there.
Billing system
Authoritative for the rate billed
The contract and payer terms are applied there.
Payroll
Authoritative for hours paid
It is the system of record for compensation.
- Which number governs?
- Operator Authority
- Governing Record
- SeniorCRE Intelligence
- Execution
Illustrative figures. Governance first. Intelligence second. Execution last.
No single system is authoritative for everything. Authority is assigned per field and per decision.
The governance question
Authority is an organizational decision that software should record, not invent. When the authoritative source is wrong, the right response is a documented override with the original value preserved, not a silent edit.
Evidence → Disagreement → Authority → Governing Record
What good operating infrastructure should do
- Per-field, per-decision authority rules approved by named owners.
- Visible authority: users can see which source governs a number.
- Override workflows that capture reason, approver and time.
- Original values preserved after every override.
- Periodic review of authority rules as systems change.
SeniorCRE perspective
SeniorCRE’s architecture records authority as a rule the operator approves, applies it when sources disagree, and keeps the overridden value with its reason and approver. Software can recommend; only the operator’s authority decides what governs. Status: the Governed Operating Record is designed and not yet implemented in any community. What has been built, validated and deployed is published on the evidence page, and nothing here should be read as a production result.