The senior living and care industry is slowly rebooting since the COVID-19 vaccine came online, according to results of the latest executive survey released Thursday by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care.
Most Wave 30 survey respondents indicated that the pace of move-ins has accelerated in the past 30 days. Nursing homes saw the greatest acceleration, with 70% of the respondents in the sector reporting positive movement.
“However, the Wave 30 survey suggests a slight pullback in the percent of respondents who see their leads volumes at pre-pandemic levels perhaps due to release of pent-up demand from the pandemic starting to wane as folks who had been previously waiting on the sidelines have been moving in since the spring,” according to the report.
Occupancy continues to trend upward, NIC said. Close to two-thirds of respondents said that they anticipate occupancy to rebound next year.
Staffing shortages are problematic across the board. Eighty percent of organizations with multiple properties said they have staffing shortages in more than half of their properties. This percentage is up slightly from the 64% reported in Wave 29. When asked to quantify the most effective method of attracting new community staff, 63% of Wave 30 respondents indicated that increasing wages was the most effective method.
