As the increased demand for senior housing continues, investors, developers, and senior housing management professionals are looking at ways to become more cost-effective, while maintaining a consistent level and quality of senior living standards. One way in which senior housing developers and management companies are seeking to become cost effective is through their use of standardized checklists. For instance, Brookdale Senior Living, by far the nation’s largest owner and operator, “has managed to significantly cut costs and reduce hospitalizations from assisted living centers by utilizing a checklist tool known as INTERACT.” While the results of the pilot project will not officially be published until 2016, some of the primary findings recently were announced at The Gerontological Society of America’s annual conference in Orlando.”
Some of the findings of Brookdale Senior Living’s checklist use of INTERACT include the following:
- These centers saw the average total cost for each resident reduced by nearly $30 per day while the experiment was occurring.
- A higher priority for assisted living providers to reduce hospitalizations and keep tabs on residents’ health conditions.
- Identifying strategic partnerships with managed care organizations keeping close tabs on costs and outcomes.
The rationale and utility for using checklists as a means to foster cost-effectiveness in senior housing is primarily based on effectuating line item accounting of every aspect of the management and operation of living facility arrangements. In fact, “the core of the program was the INTERACT (Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers) tool and relying largely on checklists, INTERACT was developed by Joseph Ouslander, M.D., and his colleagues as a way for skilled nursing facilities to keep closer tabs on residents’ conditions and have fewer and more effective transfers into and out of facilities [where] initial research showed how well it worked, helping nursing homes achieve a 24% reduction in 30-day readmissions.”
Senior Housing providers are at a pivotal moment in time. Cambridge Realty Capital is versed in a variety of investments in the senior housing market. Our experience and expertise make us a leader in the investment world.
