Data Governance
Who should own data governance inside a senior living operator?
Last reviewed
Direct answer
Executive leadership should own data governance, with each important measure owned by the executive accountable for decisions made with it. Revenue census sits with the CFO, staffing measures with operations, clinical measures with clinical leadership. IT supports the work but should not be the sole owner, because governance decisions are business decisions about what the organization accepts as true.
Why this happens
When IT owns governance alone, definitions get set by technical convenience and executives disown the results.
Ownership per measure keeps governance practical. Each owner approves the definition, the authority rule and the exceptions for the numbers they depend on.
Example: one metric, three definitions
Operations
Occupancy 92%
Residents divided by licensed beds.
Finance
Occupancy 90%
Billable resident days divided by available unit days.
Ownership report
Occupancy 91%
Occupied units divided by units in service.
- Which number governs?
- Operator Authority
- Governing Record
- SeniorCRE Intelligence
- Execution
Illustrative figures. Governance first. Intelligence second. Execution last.
Integration can move all three numbers into one place. Only governance decides which definition is approved for which purpose.
The governance question
Governance answers four questions for every important measure: what it means (definition), which system is authoritative for it (authority), how disagreements are resolved (reconciliation), and how anyone can trace the result back (lineage).
Evidence → Disagreement → Authority → Governing Record
What good operating infrastructure should do
- A register of approved definitions, owned by named people.
- Explicit source-authority rules per measure and per decision.
- A reconciliation process that records outcomes, not just corrections.
- Lineage from every reported number back to its sources.
- Change control when a definition or authority rule changes.
SeniorCRE perspective
SeniorCRE treats governance as the operator’s function, not the software’s. Its architecture encodes Definition, Authority, Reconciliation and Lineage as first-class records, so integration supplies evidence and the operator decides what governs. Unified data is not the same as governed truth. 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.