Juniper CEO Katzmann: Opportunity, Challenge to Redesign Senior Living Is Front and Center in 2022

By Lynne Katzmann

In the last several weeks, I have attended birthday celebrations for both a 102- and 106-year-old resident. So while people may be coming to senior living later, many will live longer. In fact, a recent study released by the Stanford Center on Longevity states that 50% of today’s 5-year-olds are likely to reach their 100th birthday! Just think of it: Life expectancy doubled during the last century, and that trend is continuing in this century.

What does this mean for us as a society and, specifically, as senior living providers and capital sources? Surely, the rapid change in lifespan is a product of technological, medical, and public health advances. But have our social systems kept pace?

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As a boomer, I think clearly not. My parents thought of retirement as a goal with the hope that they would be blessed with a couple of good years to do the many things they put off while working full time.

I am looking for more. If I were to retire at 65, how would I spend the next third of my life? Thirty-five years is a long time to “retire” from the everyday world of responsibilities and connections. It is even harder for most of us to fund 35 years of leisure activities.

The opportunity – and the challenge – to redesign what we do, how we do it and how we pay for it is clearly front and center as we enter 2022. Our businesses and, frankly, our lives must be realigned with a 21st century reality rather than that of the last century.

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You have likely heard this before but in 2022, it is time to step up and begin to develop and implement programs that demonstrate our ability as an industry to extend health span to match our elongated life span.

Focusing on health and wellbeing: Juniper introduces Catalyst

Juniper has been on this journey now for several years. Our innovative chronic care management program, Connect4Life, demonstrated our ability to monitor individuals 24/7 and integrate care across the continuum using a high-tech/high-touch approach. I am proud of this effort and the results; they speak to the benefits that Juniper and the senior housing industry can achieve for the people we serve. Programs such as Connect4Life that demonstrate our ability to decrease hospitalizations and re-hospitalizations (and the associated costs) are critical as “proof of concept” for senior living care and service. 

While Juniper may have pushed the envelope on a digital foundation for data collection and communication, monitoring and coordination of care and service is fundamental to our industry. Having staff with “eyes on” residents all day, every day is crucial to our model. Assessments of condition and the managing of chronic illness by communicating with medical providers is and has been part of our regulatory mandate for years.

Our job now is to provide evidence of our ability to not just manage chronic illness successfully but to improve health outcomes and then communicate it (or shout it!) widely to our consumers, other providers and payers. This must be an industry priority in 2022.

In 2022, we must lead the national effort to redefine health. Managing chronic illness is preventive; it allows us to intervene earlier and delay, if not mitigate, more severe illness.

But health is more than the absence of illness. We need to understand and then offer a new life experience—one with flexible options for more learning and social engagement. As the Stanford study suggests, we need to deliver an environment that fosters the opportunity to permit “self-defined, less uniform and regimented qualities such as resilience, self-efficacy and curiosity to become the tool kit for longevity.”

Juniper is pioneering a program that will unite people and programs to provide experiences that reimagine community life. Dubbed Catalyst, the program brings together support and lifestyle management services to enable individuals to experience life in a way that offers fulfillment and purpose.

The program, like Connect4Life, is high-tech and high-touch. We are creating a new digital foundation that suggests, arranges and measures programs designed to enhance personal well-being. A dedicated Lifestyle Concierge collects data and serves as a coach to assist “members” (aka residents) in making full use of the program. Equally important, Catalyst is designed to foster partnerships with the local community so that our settings become integrated community hubs rather than isolated buildings.

Many operators are looking at wellness programs; most see the need to reframe what we do to emphasize wellness. Few are approaching wellness by building a supportive infrastructure using technology and the community at large, both of which we see as critical to delivering on the promise of well-being and quality of life. We need to do both. Boomers like me will demand it.

Technology and ‘a new trifecta’ of data

Technology in and of itself must be another key theme of 2022. Many of us think of technology as extending our tech infrastructure so that Wi-Fi signals are available throughout our communities. Others are focused on adding software designed to streamline a process. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and software that assists with medication management and administration are simple examples that many have already adopted.

Technology in 2022 must do more. We are facing difficult and complex changes wrought by a new consumer, a workforce crisis and a continuing pandemic. We must approach data collection with more rigor—both the quality and quantity of the data must change.

Several months ago, I spoke about a new trifecta—the collection of health care data, lifestyle related data, and genomics or DNA.

Health care data is prolific and readily available today. “Lifestyle data” is becoming available via companies like Carrot Health. As the push to understand social determinants of health continues, more of this data will be collected and accessible. 

Juniper hopes to continue to gather resident specific lifestyle data as part of Catalyst. Personalized health requires an additional layer of data enabling us to understand how genetics will affect an individual’s health. This provides clues to “prescribe” activities and interventions that will improve health span to better meet lifespan. We call this a “lifestyle prescription” and our intent is to roll this out as part of Catalyst in the future.

Equally important in our usage of data and technology to improve our businesses, we need to integrate software as the foundation for a streamlined operating platform that provides real time data, communication and analytics to drive our business. Middleware platforms are evolving to do this and in 2022, it will be important to begin implementation so that we save time and improve management decision making.

What’s more, we need to share those results with others so that we can capture some of the value we create. Creating a data lake or repository of extensive, normalized data and then applying machine learning to determine patterns will be an endeavor to which the best industry leaders devote time, energy and money next year.

Rebuilding our workforce

I would be remiss if I did not discuss the most current bonfire we are fighting: labor.

On this front too, we are looking to technology for a partial solution. Human resources information technology (HRIT) has evolved significantly in the last several years, permitting operators to recruit younger, more tech savvy workers. From mobile recruitment options, to virtual interviews, to on-line onboarding that makes documentation easier and reduces time involved in managing these documents, we are moving to compete with retail and hospitality on a more level playing field.

Another part of the solution may lie in technology, specifically robotics. We are getting ready to pilot medication delivery devices and robots for delivering everything from mail, to food, to laundry. While we do not expect miracles, if it works, it will take some pressure off our resident services teams.

We also intend to expand the workforce market to a highly overlooked group: new retirees.

Workers over 55 are the fastest growing cohort, now making up about 25% of the U.S. workforce. Given that most will have a third to 40% of their life ahead of them, engaging them is not only good for the individual, but also good for our industry and the U.S. economy.

And think of it: this group has a ready supply of skills and abilities that we sorely need—the kind that people develop over a lifetime. Research has shown that older adults have greater emotional intelligence, and are strong, experienced managers and wonderful mentors. These knowledge-based positions are often the hardest to fill.

To attract these folks, we need to think a bit differently. We need to provide flexibility in schedule and wages to permit them the freedom to enjoy the benefits of retirement while continuing to contribute and earn. Again, technology may help to make the match work! Stay tuned.

Covid and everyday life

COVID will move from pandemic to endemic.

While calling it endemic means we will never rid ourselves entirely of this virus, we will learn to control it much as we have the flu. With effective vaccines, boosters and expanded eligibility for children 5 and older, more of the population will be protected.

And while there will likely continue to be areas with limited vaccination rates, COVID should have a harder time spreading and mutating. What is more exciting is that newly approved treatments are likely to further reduce the death rate. One prediction I read suggests that deaths will drop from 1,200 per day (now) to fewer than 200 per day by the end of 2022. Let’s hope we are right on this one.

COVID, labor, technology and engagement are all themes for this coming year. It is my sincere hope that we conquer the worst of COVID, and public policy and employer mindset shifts to encourage more people to return to work.

Technology and engagement will frame our future – in terms of both real estate and the services we provide. Our communities will become community hubs themselves or become integrated into the fabric of the community-at-large. My path through this third act and those of my fellow boomers will demand that spaces be used differently, that experiences focus on all the dimensions of well-being, and that choices of where I live, how I maintain my health and how I engage with others shape my quality of life. These are essentials for boomers and for life at 100-plus!

With that, our business will shift. Our opportunity to thrive will be equally strong, albeit different.

While service programs will become more place-agnostic, new revenue streams and the opportunity of growing two distinct and thriving businesses — one based on real estate and one as a service provider or arranger — will exist, where in the past, there was just one. After the past two years, this offers hope—light where it has felt that darkness often prevailed.

Here is to a new year of hard work fired by creativity, resilience and purpose that propels us forward! Here is to a new map of life that for older Americans has senior living as a prime destination.

Lynne Katzmann is a recognized industry leader, who in 2020 was inducted into the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA) Senior Living Hall of Fame. She is the founder and CEO of Juniper Communities, a Bloomfield, New Jersey-based provider with a portfolio of 28 communities across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Texas.

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