This week, Senior Housing News readers learned about a new senior living company founded by a former Brookdale executive. Readers were also clued into why electronic health record adoption is expected to accelerate, and why the shifting mergers and acquisitions climate is putting senior housing cap rates into question.
Here in the newsroom, we were impressed by one senior’s creation of a rubber-band ball with more than 30,000 rubber bands.
This Week in Review
Federal Reserve Decides To Keep Interest Rates Low A While Longer—The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided this week to take no action on the target range for the federal funds rate at the close of its two-day meeting, NPR reported. Fed Chair Janet Yellen said that for now, holding interest rates steady was the “prudent” route. The range will stay at a quarter to a half of 1%. When senior living providers found out that the Federal Reserve was intending to increase its benchmark interest rate for the first time in nearly a decade, senior living providers expressed concern about operational challenges, a recent study found.
Most Read
Former Brookdale Exec to Lead New Senior Living Operator—Nashville-based Vitality Senior Living is currently pursuing new development in several markets in the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast, and expects to announce its first firm contract within 60 to 90 days, says Chris Guay, the new provider’s president and CEO. Guay has some expertise when it comes to building a company with multiple services; he previously served as northeast division president for Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD), overseeing 275 communities across 18 states.
Shifting M&A Climate Puts Senior Housing Cap Rates in Question—There’s no question that real estate investment trusts (REITs) have become much less acquisitive, creating an opportunity for private equity and other types of buyers. But when it comes to predicting the future, industry leaders are not certain how the market will shake out, and conflicting expectations on cap rates may already be causing consternation among parties trying to get deals done, according to experts at last week’s National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) Spring Investment Forum in Dallas.
Why Senior Living is About to Accelerate EHR Adoption—Tech-savvy senior living providers, including some of the largest national chains, have been adopting electronic health records in growing numbers. The drive to wire-up assisted living and similar communities with EHRs may soon gain even more momentum, thanks to two recently announced initiatives.
Weekend Reads
What Happened After My Mom Fell—This excerpt from Stephen J. Lyons’ most recent book, published in The Washington Post, tells of life “in the Land of the Falling Moms,” where “every obstacle beckons with a kind of gravity.” There, the slightly raised entryway, the curled corner of a rug and the uneven sidewalk can dramatically change lives.
Why Living in a 55-Plus Community May be Better for Your Health—There are plenty of benefits of living in an amenity-rich 55-plus community, according to this article in The Boston Globe. Residents who live there find it difficult to be bored, the article says. “On Tuesday nights we have a cribbage league, there are pool leagues, there’s a garden club… there’s a golf course, tennis courts, two pools, every kind of club you can ever imagine,” a satisfied resident explains.
Round Rock Resident Amasses 30,000 Rubber-Band Ball—Charley Vaden, a resident of Senior Care Center’s Wyoming Springs Assisted Living and Memory Care in Round Rock, Wyoming, has made a rubber band ball with more than 30,000 rubber bands. “I just started fiddling with them and thought, I’ll just shoot for the world record,” Vaden told a local news outlet.
Written by Mary Kate Nelson
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