As patient preference continues to shift away from nursing homes, public attention is increasingly on alternate modes of skilled nursing care as well, including continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs).
Newsweek, for one, came out with a ranking of such communities in partnership with global market and consumer data firm Statista. The companies expect rankings to become an annual endeavor.
It’s a first for the publication, building off of its annual nursing home ranking. The new list recognizes 250 CCRCs based on two surveys from August, one taking residents, prospective residents, friends and family members into account, and the other geared toward CCRC workers and vendors.
The timing for the CCRC ranking is fitting as thehe occupancy rate for CCRCs continues to outpace singular care settings as of the third financial quarter of 2023, according to data published by Ziegler. Nursing beds in CCRCs totaled 93,546, a small amount compared to standalone SNFs with 763,790 beds, but growing.
Moreover, occupancy was slightly higher at 83.6% in CCRCs compared to 82.2% among standalone nursing homes, an occupancy difference of 1.4% points.
Ziegler noted larger differences in occupancy among independent living, assisted living and memory care segments of CCRCs, compared to their standalone counterparts.
Overall, CCRCs are reducing their SNF beds to accommodate patient preference, essentially rightsizing their business structure to have roughly one SNF bed for every eight to 10 memory care or assisted living beds, Plante Moran leaders have told Skilled Nursing News in previous reports.
Nursing care inventory among CCRCs decreased 1.7% as units and beds were temporarily or permanently taken offline, or converted to another care segment and outweighing added inventory, according to Ziegler data.
The Newsweek nursing home ranking list for 2024, which was announced in September, was the first time the publication included facilities with 100 to 149 beds, in addition to SNFs with more than 150 beds like in previous years. The nursing home list also mentioned whether or not the facility was part of a CCRC.
Another first – resident satisfaction was considered in Newsweek’s nursing home rankings based on National Safety Goals from the Joint Commission and Google Scores.
Top nursing homes are broken down by state and based on five data sources, including performance data, peer recommendations, management of Covid and accreditations from the Joint Commission and Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.
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