Top news organizations around the country recently ran these must-read stories related to senior housing.
Why Nursing Homes Need to Have Sex Policies—A recent high-profile legal case in Iowa raised the issue of sex in long-term care facilities, and particularly among people with dementia. Residents having sex is not uncommon, yet few senior living providers have policies that address the sensitive yet pressing issue.
REIT Mergers Seen Likely to Accelerate as Activism Climbs—Quite a few real estate investment trusts “have survived too long” and are ripe to be bought as merger and acquisitions activity picks up in the REIT space, according to Michael Kirby, chairman of research firm Green Street Advisors. The $2.6 billion Ventas buyout of American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust Inc. is just one of several major acquisitions to close this year, supporting the Green Street hypothesis, according to Bloomberg Business.
The Tangle of Coordinated Health Care—Affordable Care Act policies have encouraged increased care coordination among different health care settings, and this has led to a proliferation of case managers and similar workers. But “the law of unintended consequences” may be taking effect, as families, patients and the coordinators themselves sometimes struggle to define their roles and increase efficiency rather than create more confusion.
Ventas CEO Debra Cafaro Tells What’s Behind the Ardent Buyout—The Ventas leader reiterated that the $1.75 billion Ardent acquisition is meant to be a “beachhead” as the large-cap real estate investment trust positions itself to be a leader in hospital consolidation.
Nursing Homes Are Starting to Supplant Hospitals as Focus of Basic Health Care—Intravenous treatments, dialysis and other forms of medical treatment increasingly are being provided in nursing homes rather than hospitals, as part of a push to keep seniors out of the higher-acuity setting where they are a greater risk of infection, delirium and other negative outcomes, The New York Times reports.
How the Internet of Things Will Transform Retirement—With more household devices connected to the Internet, seniors may be able to stay in their homes longer and receive “virtual assisted living,” writes Joseph Coughlin, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab. For example, a “smart pill bottle” could automatically order a refill, to be delivered by car-sharing application Uber’s drugstore service.
Written by Tim Mullaney
Companies featured in this article:
American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust Inc., Green Street Advisors, Ventas
