As the average age of the population continues to increase, the senior living industry grows and changes with it. Factors like changing demographics, innovations in technology, and consumer spending habits play a role in determining the assisted living industry's fate.
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As an assisted living facility owner or manager, it's important that you stay abreast of various trends and changes in this ever-growing and dynamic industry.
That's why we've compiled a list of five trends that are shaping the future of the assisted living industry.
To continue your learning, check out our comprehensive Senior Living Operations Management Guide.
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Why do owners need to track Assisted Living Industry Trends?
The assisted living industry trends are constantly changing, so it’s important that owners keep track of how these changes affect their business and customers.
If you aren’t keeping up with these trends, you could fall behind your competitors and lose money on missed opportunities.
- Get a Glimpse of Assisted Living Facility Management with Xenia - Feel Free to Book a Demo Anytime!
💰 Prepare future investment
As per researchandmarkets.com, the US assisted living facility market will reach 140.8 billion USD in 2030.
By tracking trends in the industry, you can learn from other people who are already successful at implementing these new ideas or innovations into their businesses. That'll help you plan future investments and allocate funds to optimize output. You can also see what hasn’t worked for others so that you don’t make the same mistakes when trying them out yourself.
📲 Stay innovative in the market
Tracking assisted living industry trends allows owners to stay innovative in their practices. Leveraging technology helps assisted living communities to organize their activities and allocate resources efficiently. With the help of technology solutions, assisted living facilities can provide qualitative care for their residents.
For example, if there are new technologies that would make life easier for residents who have dementia or other cognitive impairments, then those technologies can be implemented at your facility as soon as possible so that people don't have any issues using them once they move into your building.
📆 Plan for change
Change is inevitable. If you don't plan for it, you'll likely be caught off guard by it. Planning ahead allows you to prepare for these changes and avoid some problems entirely. You can also use change as an opportunity to improve your facility or adjust your business model so that it works better with the times — and helps your residents get better care at a lower cost.
🌟 Inspire Workforce
When an assisted living facility adapts to technological advancements, it reduces the pressure on the staff and the direct care workers. Being an early adopter of trends elevates a facility’s status in the market.
Using technology to help the workforce ease their workload motivates the staff to use their time fruitfully. Analyzing trends and using the data to improve the life of the workers will inspire the workers to perform better.
5 trends to look out for in the assisted living industry
Baby Boomers entering retirement age
The largest generation in history — the baby boomers — are aging and moving into retirement communities at a fast pace.
This is a segment of the US population that influenced "The American Dream" and they are known to live their lives to the fullest. As per the US census, by 2030, the baby boomers population will increase to 108 million older adults over 65.
According to MarketResearchFuture.com, In 2017, the global market size for ambient assisted living was USD 2 billion. From 2021 to 2028, it is expected to grow at an annualized rate of 19% to reach USD 13 billion.
You may have been expecting this demographic shift, but did you know that they’re not retiring as their parents did? They’re staying active longer than ever before and enjoying an active lifestyle as they age into their 70s, 80s, and 90s. They are also tech-savvy and know clearly what they want from the tech advancements they have seen in their lifetime.
Many want to live independently instead of moving into nursing homes, but they also want social interaction and assistance with daily tasks such as medication management and housekeeping duties. This has created a huge demand for assisted living facilities that can provide residents with both independence and care around the clock.
More residents are focusing on healthier dietary options
According to a recent study by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, over half of Americans say they are concerned about what they eat. 79% of adults believe healthy eating is important for good health and longevity.
With so many people paying attention to their diet, it's no surprise that assisted living communities are offering more nutritious food options for residents — especially those who have health issues that require special diets like diabetes or heart disease.
The centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [CMS] have issued regulations that outline the food and nutrition to be provided to the nursing care residents.
"The facility must provide each resident with a nourishing, palatable, well-balanced diet that meets his or her daily nutritional and special dietary needs [consider all the allergies], taking into consideration the preferences of each resident."
Some growing trends when it comes to food choices are as follows:
- More and more residents are preferring organic local produce and freshly cooked meals that retain nutritious value.
- There is an upward spike in the number of people opting for vegan, gluten-free, and sugarless food choices.
- Facilities with a diverse and dynamic menu tend to do well as compared to those with a static menu. Having a dietician or nutritionist onboard is linked to increased satisfaction levels among the residents when it comes to physical and mental health.
Engaging and assisted activities are linked to a better living experience for residents
The idea that residents should have more control over their lives is becoming a priority. Activities are now being designed to engage the residents, promote their well-being and keep them socially active. Some facilities are allowing residents to choose which activities they want to participate in, while others are offering new activities such as cooking classes and art lessons.
The activities that many facilities are providing take into consideration all stages of a resident’s journey. Activities allocated to the residents who can move independently are different from the others. Specific needs are taken into consideration before designing activities. Eg: An early-stage Alzheimer's patient would benefit from a memory game than a cooking class.
Prospects are doing more online research
In the past, many people would rely on word-of-mouth when choosing an assisted living community for their loved ones. Today, however, prospective residents are doing more research online before contacting marketing teams at assisted living communities.
According to an AARP survey, 90% of people over 50 have done online research about senior housing facilities over the last 12 months — up from 68% five years ago. Seventy-one percent said they reviewed photos and videos online when deciding where to live, while 63% looked at reviews from third parties like Yelp or Google Local Guides.
This makes it even more important for you to have a strong digital presence — including an active Facebook page or Twitter handle — so they can engage with prospective residents and answer their questions regularly.
Employers are experiencing a high turnover of employees
This is a huge problem for employers in every type of business.
It's especially problematic in assisted living because many positions require specialized training and certifications. New employees have to go through on-the-job training, which takes time and money — and creates more stress for everyone involved!
Unlike other industries, the healthcare sector is facing an attrition rate of over 30%.
This could be because of longer shifts, less flexibility in scheduling shifts or pay for employees who work in health care facilities, which can be an issue for both full-time and part-time employees.
The Great Resignation
The onset of the pandemic resulted in a large number of people leaving the workforce in the healthcare sector, mainly due to the increased pressure of caretaking both at home and at work. There is a constant increase in the turnover rate of women as they are either discontinuing their work or shifting to less pressurizing jobs.
Jobs with similar median pay such as restaurants and other similar jobs are seeing a spike in job acceptance rates. Almost 3.61% of the healthcare workers resigned from their jobs between March 2020 and 2021.
Covid Trends in Assisted Living Facilities
COVID-19 has brought with it a uniquely new reality that's affecting the way we engage and live in society. When it comes to the senior population, some recent trends have emerged.
- high-speed internet has become a priority for 76 percent of adults who are 50-plus.
- 58 percent of the 50+ population feels extremely anxious about their safety and health when it comes to new diseases and viruses.
- a feeling of alienation runs amuck within the senior population as they report feeling disconnected and lonely.
Assisted Living Facilities Are Using Digital Tools for Maintenance and Operations Management
Assisted living facilities are using a variety of digital tools and including mobile devices and cloud computing to improve maintenance and operations management. These maintenance software are revolutionizing the assisted living industry. The benefits include improved efficiency and cost savings, better customer service and more accurate reporting. These tools have helped facilities ensure they are meeting regulatory requirements such as maintaining adequate staffing levels.
If you are looking to capitalize on these trends and ensure a stellar reputation for your assisted living facility, then Xenia is your one-stop solution. It's a revolutionary new tool that can reduce the workload of managers and care workers, allowing them to spend more time with their loved ones.
You can effectively manage the tasks, delegate them to the workers and also track them efficiently at the tap of your mobile phone.
Xenia focuses on helping the ALFs manage their operations and acts as a personal assistant to all your users. Communication through Xenia to get work done is now a breeze.
Grab your free product tour here to know how Xenia can help you save time, money, and resources.
Unify Team Operations, Maintenance and Safety Compliance with Xenia
Xenia unifies daily operations, maintenance management and quality assurance to help ensure teams and facilities are effective and efficient.
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Operational Execution
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📆 Recurring Tasks
Create recurring schedules for daily opening and closings, performance review meetings, inspections, cleanings and more.
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Centralize team communications with in task chats, one-on-one chats, team messages and company wide announcements
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Use Xenia's analytics dashboards to view staff work reports. Filter by asset, location, category or due date and export the report in PDF or Excel
Maintenance Management
🛠️ Work Orders
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🧰 Preventive Maintenance
Create a preventive maintenance calendar to ensure asset uptime is not compromised. Attach images, templates, videos and notes to every task and assign to a team or individual for completion.
📲 QR Codes
Generate and attach QR codes to equipment and facility locations to enable fast and accurate inspections and data logs.
⚙️ Work Order Requests
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Safety Compliance & Quality Assurance
👍 Concrete Brand Standards
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🔎 Smart Inspection Workflows
Xenia's operations template builder has built in conditional logic into each step. This allows you to trigger actions based on a form response such as creating a corrective action on a failed inspection step, sending a notification to management for out of range meter readings, and much more.
✨ Corrective Actions
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📋 Analytics and Reports
View live dashboard summaries of tasks, employee performance, template submissions and more. Filter, organize and export compliance reports to PDF and Excel formats to simplify compliance management.
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