Many Calling for Assisted Living Communities to Provide More Healthcare Assistance

Twenty years after the initial boom in assisted living — which now houses more than 800,000 people — the traditional approach of not having healthcare professionals on site or on call to assess residents and provide treatment may be shifting, according to the New York Times . Early on, assisted living companies planned to serve fairly healthy retirees, offering meals, social activities and freedom from home maintenance and housekeeping — the so-called hospitality model. But from the start, the assisted living population was older and sicker than expected. Now, most residents are over age 85, according to government data. About two-thirds need help with bathing, half with dressing, 20 percent with eating. Like most older Americans, they also generally contend with chronic illnesses and take long lists of prescription drugs — and more than 80 percent need help taking them correctly. Moreover, "these places became the primary residential setting for people with dementia," says Sheryl Zimmerman, an expert on assisted living at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine is mulling the development of model agreements to integrate medical care into assisted living. The National Center for Assisted Living's Lindsay Schwartz notes, "Assisted living has certainly expanded its role in providing medical care over the years by adding nursing staff and partnering with other healthcare providers, among other ways." Doctors Making Housecalls provides one example of how assisted living communities can offer medical care. The practice dispatches 120 clinicians — 60 doctors, along with an equal number of physician assistants, nurse-practitioners, and social workers — to nearly 400 assisted living communities throughout North Carolina.