The Pennant Group is taking “methodical” steps to return to the healthy growth rate the company has achieved over much of its history, CEO Daniel Walker said Tuesday during a third-quarter earnings call for the Eagle, ID-based company.

“These ongoing multifaceted efforts will position us for a stronger 2022,” he said.

Walker called the third-quarter results “sobering, given the high expectations we established for ourselves.” 

He said the company failed to fully offset the challenges stemming from the significant increase in COVID-19 cases in several key markets, which were exacerbated by ongoing labor pressures and diluted Pennant’s effectiveness. 

“These challenges were most acutely felt in our recently acquired home health and hospice acquisitions and continued to prolong our senior living recovery,” Walker stated in a press release issued Monday in conjunction with Tuesday’s earnings call. “While many of these headwinds appear temporary, we have taken action to position ourselves to return to a stronger growth trajectory and are already seeing positive developments as COVID-19 cases in several key markets decline.”

On the call, Walker said that “Through[out] our history we have gone through periods of substantial growth, followed by periods of retrenchment and concerted focus on more organic growth.”

The Pennant Group reported total revenue for the quarter of $111.9 million, an increase of $13.5 million (13.7%) over the same quarter in 2020. Net income for the quarter was $1.2 million; adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for the quarter was $6.5 million; and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and restructuring or rent costs for the quarter was $16.7 million.

“We saw some continued momentum in our senior living business, as the recovery from the first quarter lows continued through most of the third quarter; however, the rise in delta-variant cases led to a dip in average occupancy of 36 basis points in September over August,” Walker said in the release.

The senior living services segment revenue for the quarter was $32.9 million, and segment-adjusted EBITDA from operations in the quarter was $9.1 million. Senior living average occupancy for the quarter was 73.7%, an increase of 100 basis points (1%) over the second quarter. Average monthly revenue per occupied unit was $3,174 for the quarter.

Read more about the earnings call from McKnight’s Senior Living.