Employee Raises at No Cost?
One academic believes it won’t cost nursing homes a dime to raise wages. Okay, here I go again about The New York Times. This time, it is not about a reporter, but a contributing academic who is an economics professor at Northwestern University, Seema Jayachandran. Last weekend she wrote about how higher hourly wages can increase productivity, which can translate into higher-quality service. She based her conclusions on two studies looking at department stores and nursing homes. I will talk about the latter one. The study she cites suggests that if every county increased its minimum wage by 10%, there could be 15,000 fewer deaths in nursing homes each year. While I am sure an extra... Read More »
How Design Can Help Seniors Housing Communities Deal with COVID-19
COVID-19 will result in broad and far-reaching changes in the way seniors housing communities operate going forward. Some will address more short-term issues, and others will likely be here to stay for some time. In addition to changing their operations, providers will also look at how design can make caring for seniors in this post-pandemic world a safer and better experience. We asked Frank Rees of architecture, interior design and planning firm, Rees Associates, how he would approach design changes for both future and current communities. After consultation with many clients and friends in the industry, here are his thoughts: As we think about how design can help communities protect... Read More »
Can COVID-19 Kill The CCRC Market?
We are fond of bringing up the fact that far too many people have put the CCRC (LPC) market prematurely in its grave. It especially happens when there is a recession, like 10 years ago, and now. We are hearing rumblings again even as suburban housing prices are rising as city dwellers are heading for the COVID-free hills. We are not even four full months into this pandemic, and a much shorter time since the economy has officially been declared to be in a recession, so there are still far too many unknowns as to what may happen. But CCRCs entered this recession in probably the strongest financial position they have been in since 2007. As a result, they may weather the storm better... Read More »
New Nursing Home Commission
Watch out. When the government creates a new commission on quality in nursing facilities, it can only mean higher costs, but without increased reimbursement. The members of the new Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes was named last week, and the provider side of the business was not very well represented, especially on the for-profit side. While Neil Pruitt, CEO of Georgia-based PruittHealth, was named to the commission, no other CEO of a for-profit company was named. The closest was the SVP of Clinical Operations & Innovations of Kentucky-based Signature Healthcare. Of the 25 members, 11 were from academic institutions, government... Read More »
Ventas Slashes Dividend
In an expected development, Ventas slashed its dividend today. What was unexpected was the size of the cut. The July dividend was reduced from the previous per-share amount of $0.7925 to $0.45 per share, a drop of 43%. This will be saving Ventas $130 million of cash each quarter, or $520 million a year if they keep it at this lower level. Management stated a few months ago that if they lowered the second quarter dividend they would revisit it as operations improved. Don’t expect a large increase any time soon. Management indicated that its Seniors Housing Operating Portfolio (SHOP) was showing positive momentum with move-ins and leads improving, but that... Read More »Schedule a demo
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