FROM THE EXECUTIVE DESK
“As we enter 2023 it’s hard not to see the silver tsunami actually arriving in earnest starting particularly in 2025 when the first boomers turn 80.”
by proactive wellness initiatives particularly for seniors. For us as operators we need to embrace wellness and focus holistically on the entire person.
SLE: What other issues come to mind with resident safety? CH: There are so many dimensions to your question, but first of all I think of actual physical safety and making sure the building is safe. Beyond that it’s fall management. Falls can be caused by many factors includ- ing dehydration, medication side effects, and inappropriate footwear. With seniors it is rarely “one thing” — it is the complex interplay of multiple risk factors — some- one with even mild dementia that is undi- agnosed and is self-medicating may forgot meds. Someone who is dehydrated may simply forget to drink water. Rates of anxi- ety and depression have never been higher, and it is our job to note this and check on people and encourage socialization. All of these needs are constantly in flux and “e” assessments and documentation make it much easier to make data living, breathing information that can be easily shared across shifts. There’s much more here and it’s the core of what we do.
SLE: All of these factors are what separate assisted living from independent living. Right? CH: Assisted living is a totally different ani- mal from independent living — this is a high- ly complex “variable service delivery model” that requires constant diligence to align care fees with staffing patterns. Getting paid for what we do is a must and is a constant chal- lenge because only by getting paid can we staff accordingly. Regarding the pandemic, we mandated vaccine compliance to the extend allowed by law when it was very risky and unpopular to do so. My own perspective
52 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE MAY/JUNE 2023
is resident and employee safety trumps all and we had a moral duty to keep everyone as safe as possible. The good news is the boosters are now making a huge dent in the number of hospitalizations from COVID-19 in our communities and in society at-large for those who are vaccinated and boosted.
SLE: What do you feel is the most important part of training staff? CH: The most important question for any organization is “Why?” Obviously, just get- ting enough staff is a challenge in the current environment and turnover is an ongoing challenge so we need to attract people with a focus on the mission who want to be here. It’s a constant challenge to carve out the time before they “hit the ground running” but we are striving to get training done right. Just looking at memory care alone, we need people to understand the “why” behind the disease so they can be more empathetic with challenging behaviors. These are fully human individuals stricken with a brain disease and they cannot help what they are doing. It’s up to us to redirect, calm, nurture, and get to the core of the issue. If people on the floor have no idea what Alzheimer’s disease is and what it’s doing to a human brain they are going to be handicapped in terms of understanding appropriate interventions.
SLE: How do you deal with the workforce crisis, and how has Pegasus done in maintaining quality staff? CH: It’s clearly an ongoing challenge. In 2022, as it became clear that we were in a new world with respect to labor, I think it took operators three to six months to adjust to this new environment. We worked hard to raise wages to be competitive in the market. We also absorbed most of our benefits cost increase to try to keep as many employees as possible with health insurance. The good
news is we have mostly eliminated agency from our communities except in a few loca- tions. Our focus in 2023 is labor efficiency and better staff training to hopefully keep folks with us longer.
SLE: The future of senior living — to you feel there are ample opportunities to grow the profession well into the future? CH: The imminent arrival of the baby boom generation into senior living has been over-hyped and under-delivered. However, as we enter 2023 it’s hard not to see the silver tsunami actually arriving in earnest starting particularly in 2025 when the first boomers turn 80. I believe the need for memory care in particular will be growing quite high since unfortunately when one is stricken with Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy Body’s disease, Parkinson’s etc., it does make it much harder to live independent- ly with home health care coming in once a day — the risk of fall or elopement and other safety issues is just too great. At the other end of the spectrum I believe there will be tremendous growth in what I would call “senior lifestyle” alternatives that allow more resident control of how things are done with more services being available on an a la crate basis as opposed to packaged as “one size fits all.” I think professionals in the sector need to see the entire spectrum as truly separate businesses. Senior lifestyle requires brand management and hospitali- ty skills; assisted living and memory care is absolutely a clinical business. Senior lifestyle has more in common with multi-family; assisted living and memory care are care businesses in the same spectrum as nursing, hospice, home heath, and rehab. It’s an exciting time and clearly will be a growth sector at both ends of the spectrum for the next 15 to 20 years.
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