COVID-19 and its related challenges continued to dominate the senior living industry in 2022, and that fact was evident in some of our most-read columns, based on analytics related to website visitors, newsletter readers and social media followers and friends. But topics such as regulation and incontinence drew attention, too.
The list below details some of our most popular columns that were posted and read between Jan. 1 and Dec. 19. Here’s a chance to revisit those columns or read them for the first time.
• Most-read column by Editorial Director John O’Connor:
Senior living’s elephant in the room
The prospect of federal regulation of assisted living is “a frightening, dangerous and terrifying thought” for operators, O’Connor wrote in this Oct. 13 blog.
Noting that communities are populated with residents who have increasingly complex health needs, he added: “Let’s finally say the silent part out loud: assisted living is a healthcare player. To pretend otherwise is to deny reality.” Read more here.
Read additional columns by O’Connor here.
• Most-read column by Editor Lois A. Bowers:
What the CDC’s new masking guidance means for long-term care
In February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a revised framework by which it would make recommendations on masking and other COVID-19 prevention measures. The agency added hospitalizations and hospital capacity to cases and test positivity within a community to determine whether the level of COVID and severe disease is low, medium or high in a community.
Although it remained to be seen how the guidance could affect senior living, “[a]t least one long-term care industry advocate is calling for the federal agency, as well as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to ‘move quickly in reassessing guidance for long-term care settings,’ ” Bowers wrote in a Feb. 28 blog. Read more here.
Find additional articles and columns about COVID-19 and senior living here.
Read additional columns by Bowers here.
• Most-read guest column:
The future of senior living in 2022
2022 began with reports of increasing COVID-19 cases and new CDC guidelines related to the disease, Walter Marin, NCARB, senior principal of Marin Architects, noted in this Jan. 18 guest column. Two years earlier, he added, “these very same conditions changed the senior living industry and influenced the way spaces are designed and how residents interact within them.”
The availability of vaccines and booster shots to reduce the spread of the virus, combined with modern technology and design techniques, meant that 2022 would be dominated by certain key features, he predicted. Read more here.
Find additional articles and columns about COVID-19 and senior living here.
Read more guest columns here.
• Most-read marketplace column:
Casting my vote for ‘holiday napkins’ for incontinent elders year-round
“I am casting my vote for ‘holiday napkins,’ aka high-quality incontinence products, year-round as one of the best gifts we can give to those loved ones in our circles who are no longer able to play ‘host’ themselves any longer due to aging,” Deanna Vigliotta, national sales manager for Seni, wrote in this cleverly worded Nov. 3 marketplace column. Read more here.
Read more marketplace columns here.
Be part of the story
Interested in submitting a guest column or marketplace column in 2023? Find out how here.
And help decide our top columns of 2023.
Subscribe to our free flagship newsletter, the Daily Briefing, and join us on our social media channels, to be a part of the story next year.
McKnight’s Senior Living is on Twitter at @_McKnightsSL. Additionally, you can follow editors John O’Connor at @ltcritr, Lois A. Bowers at @Lois_Bowers and Kim Bonvissuto at @KimBonvissuto on Twitter.
To join us on Facebook, visit www.Facebook.com/McKnightsSeniorLiving. Follow the McKnight’s Senior Living company page and join the group on LinkedIn. Find us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/_McKnightsSL/.
