Operators across the senior living spectrum are reporting that occupancy rates are starting to pick up, with skilled nursing facilities recovering the fastest. Staffing shortages, however, appear to be getting worse.
That’s according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care’s (NIC) most recent survey of skilled nursing and senior living executives, now in its 29th iteration since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“Recent data suggest that cautious optimism may be justified as occupancy rates appear to have reached their low points around the end of March and are gradually improving for many operators of senior housing and care properties across the nation,” NIC senior principal Lana Peck observed in the report. “Between 48% and 71% of organizations reported upward changes in occupancy depending on the type of care segment.”
While the pace of move-ins accelerated in the past 30-days for all care segments, nursing care saw the highest reported acceleration in move-ins since the survey began in March 2020, with 66% seeing the pace pick up.
The NIC data comes from leaders at 75 small, medium and large seniors housing and skilled nursing facilities from across the country, collected from May 17 to June 13.
Skilled nursing operators have faced plummeting occupancy rates since March of 2020. While government support has cushioned the impact, the timing of the next round of funding is still unclear, meaning the clock is ticking for these facilities to recover.
Fortunately, this data helps validify the growing belief that SNF occupancy will recover by the end of the year.
While the degrees of occupancy change vary by care segment, nursing care saw the highest improvement with 47% of nursing care beds reporting increases in occupancy of three percentage point or more, according to the recent survey.
“Now that we’re past having COVID in our buildings and recovering, we’re seeing those that were lagging, picking up. If you looked at our same-store, our target would be back to 90% occupancy [by the end of the year],” Leigh Ann Barney, president and CEO of Trilogy Health Services, told SNN in a recent interview.
Meanwhile, the bad news for the sector centered around staffing shortages.
On the NIC survey, 93% of the organizations reported that they were experiencing staffing shortages.
The previous survey had that number at 89%.
The numbers may be even higher for the nursing home segment in particular.
A recent survey of 616 nursing homes, conducted by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), found that 94% of operators said they were experiencing staffing shortages.
Companies featured in this article:
American Health Care Association, National Center for Assisted Living, National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care
