Residents moving into senior living communities and skilled nursing facilities require higher levels of care and service needs than new residents did before the pandemic, according to the latest Executive Survey Insights report released Thursday by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care.

“I hypothesize that delayed move-ins as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are at the heart of the issue, i.e. existing chronic conditions became exacerbated during that time of delayed move-in,” Ryan Brooks, senior principal at NIC, told McKnight’s Friday.

The Wave 41 survey includes responses from May 2 to May 27 from owners and executives of 60 operators across the country. In this survey, 71% of the respondents with assisted living reported that incoming residents have greater needs than before, as did 60% for respondents with memory care units or nursing beds. Forty-one percent of independent living respondents said residents now have greater needs.

Across the board, staffing remains a challenge. Moderate staffing shortages increased for the second consecutive wave. Seventy-seven percent of respondents indicated that the severity of the staffing shortages across their organizations was moderate, whereas 16% of respondents reported that staffing shortages were severe. The good news is that Wave 41 marks the second consecutive wave in which severe staffing shortages declined.

Eighty-three percent of overall respondents said they remain concerned about recruiting new staff members. Other main concerns, they said, are increasing operating expenses (80%) and staff turnover (63%).

Less than half (43%) of the respondents said they have used the CMS nurse aide training waiver to employ aides in skilled nursing facilities for longer than four months. The waiver is set to expire Tuesday. Respondents indicated that the expiration would have some effect on operations: 25% reported that it would have a minimal effect, 58% reported that it would have a moderate effect, and 17% reported that it would have a strong effect.

In other results, lead volumes are up but ticking below recent waves. Fifty-four percent of respondents indicated that lead volumes were above pre-pandemic levels, compared with 52% in Wave 40 and 33% in Wave 38. In Wave 41, large operators with 26 or more properties had the greatest portion of respondents indicating lead volumes above pre-pandemic levels (60%). Fifty-seven percent of Mid-sized operators with 10 to 25 properties reported lead volume above pre-pandemic levels, followed by single-site operators (53%) and small-sized (two to nine) properties) operators (46%).

“While this is an encouraging sign, this may be reflecting pent-up demand from earlier in the pandemic,” Brooks wrote.