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Senior living resident satisfaction scores are on the rise, but to keep residents and their families happy in the future, operators must continue to evolve their clinical capabilities.
The latest JD Power resident satisfaction score data shows that family and decision-maker satisfaction for assisted living and memory care grew 18 points in 2025 compared to 2023, rising to a score of 1,000 from 855 three years ago.
These improving metrics are a positive sign for the industry that has weathered the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, and I think they show that providers’ efforts to evolve their models for a new generation are paying off.
But senior living operators can’t rest on their laurels. Rising acuity and growing consumer expectations for quality care at a price they can afford means that senior living clinical models cannot remain in their current form. I think that operators are making headway in that regard by piloting early detection tools or layering in preventative and lifestyle-based care. But I also think companies that don’t explore these and other kinds of capabilities risk leaving money on the table in the form of unmet demand.
To this end, Brea, California-based Insight Living is piloting a voluntary genetic health study across its 26 communities to identify if residents have a specific gene associated with elevated Alzheimer’s dementia risk. The operator swabs residents’ cheeks to map their brain health profile. Doing so has led to more personalized cognitive and wellness programming, according to Insight Living President Bryan Ziebart.
“The industry is best positioned to help drive innovation in aging and improve the quality of life for our current residents, but also future generations because we have longitudinal data, we manage comorbidities and manage medication needs,” Ziebart told me.
In this week’s SHN+ Update, I analyze how evolving clinical and resident engagement efforts and offer the following takeaways:
- How operators are starting to think differently about early detection clinical tools
- Ways providers can improve resident and family satisfaction through improved clinical models
- Why the industry should take on more partnerships with third-party aging-related research efforts to improve care models
Evolving clinical models ‘no longer optional’
In the last five years, many senior living providers have changed their care models to match rising acuity trends. Operators are working with technology vendor partners to help them achieve these new goals, aiming to improve resident and family caregiver engagement while making clinical operations more nimble.
The industry is approaching a point where it is “no longer optional” to be data- and technology-focused, Ziebart told me. Families of residents now expect a tech-rich environment that can best care for their loved ones.
I think general consumer trends are playing into this. For example, adult children of senior living residents have a plethora of apps that give them access to personal, financial and health data, and I think they will expect the same level of transparency and access from senior living operators. The general public can use technology to do something as simple as check in on their dog while on vacation, and they will expect the same visibility and transparency from a senior living provider, Ziebart told me.
The average initial monthly rate of memory care is $7,899, according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC). For that price, families now expect a level of access and visibility not seen in the past, Ziebart said.
Residents at Insight Living communities have at no extra cost to them access to food allergy testing. Insight Living also partners externally with academic and research entities through its nonprofit wing, the Integrated Senior Foundation, to blend affordability, care and “forward-thinking investments and partnerships.” For example, the foundation has partnered with Stanford University to advance AI tools for earlier detection of Alzheimer’s disease and neuropsychiatric risk detection, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Sync Labs to deploy an in-room AI system that helps staff anticipate resident needs in nighttime safety and morning care tasks, Ziebart told me.
Some of the largest senior living providers are taking steps to improve their clinical models with an eye on technology and preventative care, including Brookdale Senior Living’s rollout of its HealthPlus program. Other operators, including HumanGood, GenCare Lifestyle and Avamere, have also taken a fresh look at their clinical models, integrating more remote patient monitoring and telemedicine to improve resident care.
This year, Solera Senior Living and tech firm Inspiren, along with three other firms, formed a new resident care model through the Alliance for Connected Senior Care by improving resident outcomes through coordinating communication and data sharing.
In the past, operators felt as if they had to “chase down” health care providers, but now, senior living is the “new kid on the block” with primary health care providers making more availability to see patients at communities, according to SRG Vice President of Health Services Sara Padilla.
“We’ve seen the availability to have that health care provider more accessible with more frequent visits and I think it’s really helping us with the change in acuity that we’re seeing,” Padilla told me. “Communication will always be a struggle but if you have one provider coming into your setting, it makes that collaboration for those residents much easier.”
In a similar vein, Bloomfield, New Jersey-based Juniper Communities relies on its Connect4Life program, which brings an integrated care model with on-site primary care and other health services in an effort to reduce hospitalizations and centralize care management.
By more closely involving health care providers in communities, SRG has reported improvements in medication management and improved follow-up from health care providers. This has led to a “better overall management” of resident health at scale, Padilla added.
Preparing clinical models to support data analysis, family engagement
Senior living operators have improved operating models in recent years by using data to shift from a reactive approach to a more proactive one. I think this raises the bar for senior living and these kinds of practices will increasingly become the table stakes of doing business in the industry.
Insight Living’s community clinical and life enrichment teams aggregate over 150,000 data points for each resident on a monthly basis. The data then runs through large language model (LLM) software that creates a narrative. Insight uses the data and narratives to update families on residents’ activity participation, meals along with data points that can show changes in health.
Having more data on each resident helps Insight Living communities follow the “breadcrumbs” of slight changes in a resident’s acuity prior to a major event like a hospitalization, Ziebart said.
“We’re telling families through these weekly updates little changes in acuity or behavior that are building up to an event,” Ziebart told me. “So when we do have a larger event like a hospitalization, families have started to see the writing on the wall and that’s been a very positive trend.”
I believe this type of partnership between the community and family caregiver is the next step in senior living’s clinical care evolution, able to provide a more holistic picture of a resident’s health and involve the family in operations in a more intimate way rather than solely getting contacted when an adverse health event occurs.
For example, a resident at an Insight Living community was reluctant to take medications and refused those medications. After contact with the family following a notification in the weekly summary, the adult child informed care staff that their loved one preferred to take their medications with a light snack.
“That led to a better clinical outcome for that individual because we didn’t try to figure out the issue on our own, we involved the family at a time when in the past it may not have happened,” Ziebart told me. “We’re focused on transparency and collaboration with families.”
Insight Living has leveraged these personalized reports into an early marketing tool that helps improve engagement with families and “establishes a lot of trust and rapport” when a prospect visits an Insight community, Ziebart added.
Atria Senior Living is also bringing more technology into its clinical capabilities. The Louisville, Kentucky-based senior living provider recently piloted incontinence pads that can connect to Wi-Fi and provide updates of any issues to care staff. They help prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs) that are a common health issue older adults living with dementia face.
Next year, the company also plans to pilot remote fall detection technology in memory care communities, according to Atria Executive Vice President Ryan Sprau. By tackling a common health issue in memory care while also preparing to roll out a fall detection system, Sprau sees this as being “proactive” in adapting care in today’s senior living environment.
“Solving those types of problems with this type of stuff is part of what we see as being a real big deal,” Sprau told me. “For memory care residents, their families and our employees, this is all proactive and we’re trying to get ahead of that.”
To me, this is how operators will be judged in the future, not on simply collecting clinical data but instead how well they can use these insights to help families to check in on their loved ones. Operators also can potentially use that data to improve care in ways that were previously tough for professional care teams to solve. Clinical models of the present and future must be based on being proactive, bringing the family closer to operations and improving resident health outcomes.
The operators that succeed in improving clinical innovation with technology, while also bringing families more data and engagement, will be the ones that can capitalize on future demand and push the industry forward. They will do this by using data insights to anticipate needs and improve collaboration with families and health care partners.
As the industry sees satisfaction scores improving, rising expectations will follow and providers must adopt early detection tools, build stronger engagement models and create research-driven partnerships that can create a more transparent senior living environment in the future.
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