HealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsBe confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior.
View All ProductsDevelop next-level people for next-level care by prioritizing quality and safety improvements.
View All ProductsEstablish a culture of belonging with education supporting DEI, wellness, engagement, and leadership development.
View All ProductsDeliver custom or industry designed product training directly to patient and resident care environments to reinforce proper use.
View All ProductsStop wasting money on RCM issues. Learn how to Provide your team with expert-led revenue cycle training to help them reduce denied claims, reimbursement mistakes, and more.
View All ProductsLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ProductsOur competency development solutions personalize learning for clinicians to bridge the gap between theory and practice for your nurse residents.
View All ProductsEnhance maternal & child nursing care with solutions focused on improving the quality of care for mothers, infants, and children.
View All ProductsAddress staffing orientation challenges to easily achieve and maintain certification with our emergency and acute care training solutions.
View All ProductsAs a premier provider of healthcare education, we are committed to promoting safer, more successful surgical and sedation outcomes for each and every patient.
View All ProductsOur solutions are designed to cater to the needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and organizations dealing with illnesses or chronic conditions.
View All ProductsHealthcare workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention
View All ProductsTackle all the challenges of provider directory management within a health plan with a single solution tailored to your specific needs.
View All ProductsOur affordable CVO credentialing services establish patient safety by enabling primary source verification for your healthcare organization.
View All ProductsFinally, a comprehensive resource to support collecting, storing, and sharing credentialing data with ease.
View All ProductsIntegrate with Epic to validate and add new providers directly to your provider master file.
View All ProductsMitigate risk and elevate your quality of care. Improving both clinical and business outcomes starts with a smarter, more integrated approach to regulatory training, continuing education and quality management.
Learn MoreLike many areas of the care continuum, assisted living and other senior residential care environments currently are under significant pressures, both from an operational and financial direction. The outlook for the immediate future for these providers is mixed--occupancy will remain stagnant and workforce challenges will grow more complicated, but changes in the U.S. economy and health care system could alleviate some pressures and create business opportunities” (Mullaney, 2019). Importantly, the workforce required for this sector is significant and sizeable, and addressing some of the problems inherent to it may help these providers get on a better footing. In two recent articles, leaders in this area of the care industry talked about their workforce challenges and some solutions to them.
Need to Focus on the Workforce
Cindy Baier, the CEO at industry giant Brookdale Senior Living, offered that organizations offering senior living need to “focus on what matters most--their people. We expect the labor market will continue to be quite competitive, so senior living companies will have to maintain a meaningful focus on attracting, engaging, developing, and retaining key talent” (Mullaney, 2019).
Recruiting Qualified Staff
According to Brenda Bacon, President and CEO of Brandywine Living, “Our challenge is and will be to attract and retain the best talent. The concurrent challenge is to absorb the growing cost of labor in the lowest unemployment environment in 49 years while maintaining and improving margins” (Mullaney, 2019). This organization, like others, must deal with competition for qualified workers as it becomes more expensive to hire and keep employees.
A future-oriented article in McKnight’s Senior Living also indicated that “workforce issues will continue to be a dominant challenge in the senior living industry in 2019” (Bowers, 2019). The industry leaders who were interviewed also shared that some other prominent challenges “involve affordable housing, Medicare Advantage, financing, and changes resulting from consumer demographics and preferences” (Bowers, 2019).
Retaining Caregivers
National Center for Assisted Living Executive Director Scott Tittle states that retention is a serious problem across the industry. According to Tittle, “We hear it from member providers consistently that finding and keeping quality caregivers is a challenge, especially as the economy improves and unemployment rates decrease” (Bowers, 2019).
Developing Caring Staff
James Balda, the President and CEO at Argentum, the senior living trade association, pinpoints his organization’s members’ need to focus on “finding and developing a professional and caring workforce as a top challenge” (Bowers, 2019). Not only are organizations in his space encountering a severe labor shortage, but they need to know how to turn workers into the caring workforce that residents require. According to Balda, the number of workers who will be required is daunting. He adds, “the industry will need to fill spots for 1.4 million workers between now and 2025, representing 281,000 [new] jobs and more than one million [replacement] jobs for industry workers who are retiring or exiting senior living” (Bowers, 2019).
Establishing Career Pathways
In addition to common workforce issues, the industry needs a stronger focus on developing a career pathway for employees, according to LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan (Bowers, 2019). Once employees have become part of the senior living industry, retaining them might be easier if they have an idea of where their careers might lead and of what training is needed to get them there.
For this sector of the care continuum, it is apparent that finances will continue to be a sore spot. President and CEO Brian Jurutka of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care offered that “the big challenge for senior living operators in 2018 was a squeeze on net operating income from both the revenue and expense side” (Bowers, 2019). He also shared that a stronger supply of new housing has “put downward pressure on occupancy in many markets, [while] …on the expense side, historic low unemployment rates helped drive higher labor costs, which make up about two-thirds of operating costs” (Bowers, 2019).
The experts above appear to agree that the workforce challenges in Senior and Assisted Living are not likely to end anytime soon. The trade-off for employee benefits resulting from labor shortage, job growth, and higher wages will likely have a counterpart in the impact on the customer base as industry organizations struggle to fill jobs and provide the quality care that residents expect and require.
Discover HealthStream solutions for developing the Senior and Assisted Living workforce.
References
Bowers, Lois, “Workforce issues loom large as 2019 begins, leaders say,” McKnight’s Senior Living, January 2, 2019, Retrieved at https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/home/news/workforce-issues-loom-large-as-2019-begins-leaders-say/.
Mullaney, Tim, “Senior Living Executive Forecast: 2019 Business Trends, Challenges, Opportunities,” Senior Living News, January 1, 2019, Retrieved at https://seniorhousingnews.com/2019/01/01/senior-living-executive-forecast-2019-business-trends-challenges-opportunities/.
HealthStream’s learning management system and healthcare training solutions support medical training initiatives and allow for the best patient care.
View All Learning & PerformanceHealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsWhen you enact HealthStream's quality compliance solutions, you can do so with the confidence your healthcare organization will meet all standards of care.
View All Quality & ComplianceBe confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior.
View All ProductsDevelop next-level people for next-level care by prioritizing quality and safety improvements.
View All ProductsEstablish a culture of belonging with education supporting DEI, wellness, engagement, and leadership development.
View All ProductsUtilize patient access solutions and advanced reimbursement solutions to manage clinical denials and improve your organization’s reimbursement strategy.
View All ReimbursementExpand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ProductsOur competency development solutions personalize learning for clinicians to bridge the gap between theory and practice for your nurse residents.
View All ProductsEnhance maternal & child nursing care with solutions focused on improving the quality of care for mothers, infants, and children.
View All ProductsAddress staffing orientation challenges to easily achieve and maintain certification with our emergency and acute care training solutions.
View All ProductsAs a premier provider of healthcare education, we are committed to promoting safer, more successful surgical and sedation outcomes for each and every patient.
View All ProductsOur solutions are designed to cater to the needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and organizations dealing with illnesses or chronic conditions.
View All ProductsMake sure your healthcare staff can schedule out appointments and work schedules with ease using HealthStream's line of software solutions.
View All SchedulingHealthcare workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention
View All ProductsComprehensive, industry-leading provider onboarding and credentialing software that validate health outcomes and support provider assessment.
View All CredentialingOur affordable CVO credentialing services establish patient safety by enabling primary source verification for your healthcare organization.
View All ProductsIntegrate with Epic to validate and add new providers directly to your provider master file.
View All Products