Data Governance: It's not just for "nerds" anymore!

Credentialing used to be solely focused on just that, credentialing. With all the changes our industry is enduring, it has become essential for healthcare organizations to determine a ‘source of truth’ for provider data, with the credentialing database now firmly in the spotlight.  Data governance, change control, and data integrity used to be terms that were heard strictly in the IS/IT departments.

Now they are common nomenclature in nearly all aspects of credentialing.

Many credentialers have grown very accustomed to having the credentialing database ‘be ours’ and being in charge of the data: who can touch it, who can see it, and most importantly, who can use it.  With the demand for a provider ‘source of truth’ and with consideration of the other departments’ needs for provider data, these decisions have more weight than what we can control on our own. Enter a Data Governance Committee…

Data Governance Committees are a critical element for many forward-thinking healthcare organizations, and set up to determine processes and procedures for changes related to provider information that will be in the best interests of the specific healthcare organization. Acknowledging the importance of these committees, how can we embrace the processes, accept the self-imposed ‘loss of control’, and prevent it from hindering our timelines?

SAMPLE DATA GOVERNANCE CHARTER

Project Title and Description

This Charter formally authorizes the Data Governance Committee to implement a Change Control Process for (-name of organization-). The Change Control Process implementation includes the following objectives:

• Collect and review all data that needs to be monitored
• Review how the data is used by downstream systems
• Establish processes and procedures to ensure data integrity

Business Need

This committee is being implemented in order to determine how critical data, used in downstream systems, is managed and changed throughout the organization.

Stakeholders & Committee Members

Stakeholders for Data Governance Committee:

• Name & Title
• Name & Title
• Name & Title

Committee Members:

• Name & Title
• Name & Title
• Name & Title

GET INVOLVED!!

The best advice I can provide is to be involved in these committees (volunteer if necessary), the meetings, the processes - all of it. The more involved you are in these committees, the better equipped you become to adopt these processes, ensure the integrity of the provider data is maintained, and gain a better understanding of the needs of the departments and systems that rely on quality provider data.

If your organization has not already implemented a data governance or change control committee, now is the best time to SPEAK UP and kick it off!! Not only are these committees trending right now, but there is no indication that they will ever not be needed.

As credentialers, we verify and validate everything…let’s start including how the data we validate is being deployed across the organization.