When senior living residents engage in at least one meaningful community event per day, the increase in their quality of life can dramatically boost their length of stay and generate over $1 million in additional retained revenue.
The problem? Ninety-six percent of residents participate in fewer than one meaningful event per day.
Those are the insights from resident insight and experience platform TSOLife, which since 2019 has worked with 1,500 communities in 48 states to generate an average of more than 150 data points per resident over 175,000 residents.
The study reveals how powerful data-driven decisions for personalized lifestyle offerings can be for resident health, engagement programming ROI and operator bottom line.
The Hidden ROI of Human Connection: Key Findings from TSOLife’s Database
Take a look at a senior living community’s events calendar, and what stands out is a full slate of activities, running daily. Yet a deeper analysis often reveals a tough truth: just because operators offer activities doesn’t mean residents are participating.
For its study, TSOLife analyzed a dataset of 175,000 residents with a regression testing subset of 43,000 residents who completed repeated Quality of Life (QoL) assessments, typically at six-month intervals. This longitudinal design enabled TSO to observe how QoL changed over the course of a resident’s stay. Length of stay (LOS) was calculated for both discharged and active residents; LOS for active residents was right-censored at the date of analysis.
Quality of life was then assessed using a validated five-point self-reported scale:
- Very Poor: The resident perceives life quality as extremely unsatisfactory
- Poor: The resident perceives significant dissatisfaction or unmet needs
- Neutral (neither Poor nor Good): The resident holds a neutral perception of life quality
- Good: The resident reports satisfaction across key life domains
- Very Good: The resident reports strong satisfaction, sense of purpose and overall well-being
This measure, endorsed by the World Health Organization, captures a resident’s global life satisfaction across physical, cognitive, emotional and social dimensions. Research in gerontology has consistently shown that self-perceived QoL is one of the most powerful predictors of health outcomes, functional independence and survival.
Asking residents to assess themselves within a framework of Social Determinants of Health is vital to understanding their relationship to their community. The key findings:
- Residents with “Good” QoL remain in their community 7-9 months longer than those with “Poor” or “Very Poor” QoL
- Over 25% of respondents show declining QoL month over month
- Each one-point increase in QoL predicted an additional 84.7 days of LOS
That’s the impact on the residents. Now consider the impact on revenue.
From Days to Dollars: How QoL Affects the Bottom Line
As noted, 96% of residents participate in fewer than one meaningful event per day. Considering that across the TSOLife dataset, 72% of residents scored below “Very Good” QoL, most communities have a majority of residents who could benefit from improved systematic engagement.
Here’s what the TSOLife data shows.
In a 100-unit assisted living and memory care community operating at 85% occupancy, with an average monthly rent of $5,500, elevating 65 residents above the one-event-per-day engagement threshold is projected to yield a measurable quality-of-life improvement of approximately one point on a validated QoL scale. Based on observed correlations between QoL scores and LOS, this translates to an additional 182 retained resident-months across the cohort.
The financial impact of this LOS retention is equivalent to approximately $1,000,000 in incremental revenue, achieved without new construction, staffing increases or rate adjustments.
For an operator serving 2,500 residents, improving QoL scores for 72% of residents below “Very Good” translates into meaningful retention gains. A one-point QoL lift is associated with an average 85-day increase in length of stay, or just under three months. Applied across 1,800 residents, this results in 5,040 additional resident-months retained.
At an average monthly rent of $5,500, the value of these retained months equals $27.7 million in additional revenue.
ROI Breakdown:
- Population: 2,500 residents
- Impact: 72% improved QoL -> 1,800 residents
- LOS Extension: +85 days each (≈2.8 months)
- Total Retained Months: 1,800 × 2.8 = 5,040 months
- Avg. Market Rate: $5,500 per month
- Incremental Revenue: 5,040 × $5,500 = $27.7M
The Evidence is Clear
The study from TSOLife is powerful as it is straightforward: personalized participation measurably improves quality of life, which then reliably predicts length of stay. Together, these relationships form a statistically validated pathway that directly links engagement to revenue.
The implication is profound: engagement is no longer a soft amenity. It is a quantifiable business driver. For operators, the next step is equally profound: using intelligence to personalize resident engagement is the path to happier residents, longer stays — and a healthier business.
This Views is sponsored by TSOLife and is based on their report “Resident Intelligence That Moves Revenue: The Hidden ROI of Human Connection in Senior Living.” To read the full report, visit TSOLife here.
The post NEW DATA: How Quality of Life Drives Length of Stay and Revenue appeared first on Senior Housing News.
Source: For the full article please visit Senior Housing News