More than half of senior housing operators are reporting an increase in the pace of move-ins — the highest percentage since April 2022 but still below peak 2021 numbers, according to the National Investment for Seniors Housing & Care.
In Wave 52 of the organization’s Executive Survey, which collected insights in April from senior living and skilled nursing operators, 52% of organizations reported accelerated move-ins. This amount compares with 54% in April 2022 and 60% from April to July 2021.
Assisted living and memory care respondents were more likely to report an accelerated pace of move-ins (56% each) than were independent living respondents (52%). But for independent living operators, the survey marked the third consecutive month of an increase in operators reporting an accelerated pace of move-ins — up from 37% of responding operators in March and 27% in February.
A higher percentage of survey participants from any level of senior living — assisted living, memory care or independent living — reported an accelerated pace of move-ins compared with respondents from skilled nursing (44%).
Across long-term care, “[t]he increasing proportion of organizations reporting an acceleration in the pace of move-ins is creating optimism with regard to the anticipated time frame for occupancy to recover to pre-pandemic (March 2020) levels,” NIC Senior Principal Ryan Brooks wrote in a blog post.
Thirty-eight percent of operators taking part in the survey said that they anticipate that occupancy will recover this year, whereas 25% said they don’t expect recovery until 2024. Only 6% of operators said they think it will be 2025 or beyond for occupancy until occupancy recovers.
Needs-based settings, Brooks wrote, are most optimistic about the occupancy recovery timeline — 46% of nursing care, 41% of assisted living and 40% of memory care operators responding to the survey said they expect to see occupancy recovery this year. This level compares with only 25% of independent living operators anticipating recovery coming this year.
Staffing remains top challenge
Despite the optimism, labor challenges remain.
Attracting community and caregiving staff remains the biggest challenge, according to 78% of respondents, down from 82% in the Wave 51 survey. Other high-ranking challenges include rising operator expenses (76%) — down from 92% in March — and staff turnover (67%).
The number of organizations reporting more than 25% of their full-time positions are open more than doubled to 12% since November/December 2022 (5%).
More than 90% of operators reported staffing shortages in April, down slighting from 92% in Wave 49 of the survey. Among those operators, 75% said their staffing shortages were moderate, 17% said they were minimal and just 8% characterized their shortages as severe.
Operators continue to turn to staffing agencies to fill open roles, with nurse aides (38%) and nurses (33%) being the roles most often needing agency staff supplementation, followed by food service employees (13%) and plant operations (10%).
Despite those challenges, 48% of operators said they anticipate an improvement in the workforce this year, whereas 28/% said they don’t expect the labor front to improve until 2024. The remaining 25% of respondents said they don’t anticipate improvements until 2025 or later.
