Mitchell Elliott

The Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments and J+J Flooring Group have formed a partnership to conduct post-occupancy evaluations in an effort to improve the planning and design of senior living communities.

The project is expected to provide a sustainable platform to conduct ongoing post-occupancy evaluations, or POEs, of physical environments for older adults that involve collaboration among numerous stakeholders.

“The POE team will be a cross-disciplinary team of professionals who will evaluate the environment and its impact on outcomes and resident experience,” Mitchell Elliott, president of SAGE, told McKnight’s Senior Living.

POEs are used to improve the ways that buildings are designed and used to support productivity and well-being, according to the partners. Traditionally, POEs have been more commonplace in office buildings, schools and universities, hotels and hospitals.

“Given the significant growth and complexities of the senior living industry, more and more innovations are coming to the marketplace, and we believe that POEs are one of the most valuable tools to help further shape highly successful physical environments for seniors,” said Elliott, who is a senior partner at RDG Planning & Design and is based in Omaha.

J+J Flooring Group will provide funding for resources and administrative support for what is being called the SAGE POE. SAGE will work with J+J Flooring Group to leverage the company’s experts and relationships in senior living during the development, implementation, presentation and publication of the POEs. Evaluations will not be limited to flooring, Elliott said.

The partnership hopes to enable SAGE to build a robust library of POEs to provide data on evidence-based design outcomes.

“The first community we have targeted is an assisted living memory care environment,” Elliott said. “We want the POE process to confirm the impact that planning and design has on quality outcomes, and more.”