U.S. News & World Report announced that it is getting into the business of ranking seniors housing communities, after already doing the same for nursing homes. We’re happy to see the initiative since improved transparency for the sector and recognition of the services that operators provide is a good thing. We are also pleased that apparently, U.S. News will dedicate one journalist to cover the sector and help educate consumers on the differences between seniors housing and SNFs, which national and local media fail to do all too often.
After working with some industry leaders and associations to create a rankings methodology, Activated Insights, run by CEO Jacquelyn Kung, is gathering the data through resident and family satisfaction surveys. The first results are expected early next year. It’s not a perfect system, mostly because operators have to pay to participate, which we imagine tends to leave out many of the little guys, even though smaller operators would pay less than the larger companies to participate. There are also the man-hours spent identifying your survey participants and communicating with them through the process, which smaller operators already stretched thin may find to be a luxury they cannot afford. But we are looking forward to the results, and hopefully, more consumers come away knowing what seniors housing can do for them or their loved ones.
