What is the value of data analytics in today’s rapidly evolving senior living landscape? Now essential to operations, data analytics–when used right–can help make organizations smarter and improve resident care, say tech experts from LeadingAge Silver Partner LCS, CAST Patron Ingleside, and CAST Patron RiverWoods Group. They shared their best practices and sage advice at the LeadingAge Leadership Summit, held April 7-9, 2025, in Washington, DC.

Participants on the panel, which was one of three sessions on innovations in aging services technologies, shared firsthand experience leveraging data to improve operations, enhance resident care, and empower staff in transformative ways.

Data Insights Are Essential

The session kicked off with a familiar pain point: data overload without insight. Panelists described how disparate systems and manual processes once limited their ability to make informed decisions. Now, with modern platforms and centralized dashboards, they are creating actionable intelligence to support everything from staffing decisions to resident engagement.

“We had a lot of data, but we didn’t have a lot of information.”
— Dusanka Delovska-Trajkova, CIO, Ingleside

Centralizing Data for Smarter Decisions

LCS vice president of data and analytics Joel Rosenberg, who led the organization’s charge to bring data to life, shared how “LCS Insight Advantage,” a self -service analytics tool that unifies critical data streams across departments and communities, has made an impact.

“We all have access to the same information at the same time. From a decision-making standpoint, that’s a really powerful thing.”
— Joel Rosenberg, VP of Data & Analytics, LCS

LCS’s centralized data approach has broken down silos, allowing department heads to spot trends, diagnose problems, and ask deeper questions—ultimately improving the quality of care and operational performance.

Laying the Infrastructure and Building the Culture

David Lafferty, CIO of RiverWoods Group, discussed how implementation of their business intelligence platform provided the foundation for a fundamental cultural shift. RiverWoods’ dashboards now update multiple times per day, providing teams with up-to-the-minute data on occupancy, overtime, staff retention, and more. But the true shift came from embedding data literacy into the culture.

“We’re building the capability to ask the right questions and make changes in real time, not after the trend has already passed us by.”
— David Lafferty, CIO, RiverWoods Group

Lafferty’s team worked closely with operational leaders to create a shared understanding of what data could do—and how to use it. From frontline staff to department heads, training sessions were intentionally cross-functional to build peer learning, spark adoption, and help teams interpret insights rather than just view charts.

“We’re learning how to embed ourselves more regularly in operations—not just to launch a tool and move on, but to help people ask better questions and make smarter decisions every day.”
— Lafferty

He also noted that culture building means shifting away from viewing information technology (IT) as a siloed department or function. Instead, IT co-owns outcomes with operational leaders, and the organization makes analytics part of everyday workflows.

“We can show you what’s possible, but we need business leaders to tell us what they actually need to do.”

— Lafferty

How Data Tools Improve Residents’ Care

Across all organizations, panelists stressed that data is most powerful when it enables people to do their best work.

“We owe it to our employees to build technology tools that allow them to focus on the more human task of serving residents.”
— Rosenberg

Leaders, the panelists stressed, must ensure that staff recognize the outcomes of good data analytics tools can build buy-in and encourage staff to support these tools.

The team at Ingleside uses analytics to drive decisions in areas like census, dining, resident engagement, and even philanthropic giving. Their approach integrates dashboards with key performance indicators and hands-on staff education.

Ingleside CIO Delovska-Trajkova noted that elevating staff training and education leads to careful and accurate data entry, which ultimately affects the quality of care for residents.

“The first day an employee starts, they’re entering data. We have to get it right from the beginning—and that means building understanding around why the data matters.”

— Delovska-Trajkova

The Bottom Line

Panelists wrapped up the session with a clear message: data analytics in senior living is not just about metrics. It’s about enabling your mission. It’s about empowering your teams, improving resident experiences, and making better decisions faster. Communities that embrace data today will be the ones shaping the senior living experience of tomorrow.