The only constant in senior living is pressure. In recent years, operators have faced labor disruption, inflation, higher wages, rising interest rates, uncertainty around immigration and tariffs, increased acuity rates, and rent hikes. How can leaders navigate it all while also taking advantage of new opportunities? By turning to data insights.
I began my senior living career in operations before moving into asset management, development, investment, and now my role as head of strategic partnerships at Sage. Across every stage, I have seen operators rely on fragmented systems that do not speak to each other. This makes gathering insightful, actionable data incredibly difficult, if not impossible. These operators are looking at metrics in a vacuum—and making decisions in the dark.
But there is good news. The pressure on our industry has accelerated the adoption of technology like Sage, a unified operations management system built to surface the data operators need. With these trends in mind, I have outlined the seven datapoints every senior living company should track. These are leading indicators of the health of your business, the happiness of your employees, and the quality of your caretaking.
Occupancy is at the core of any senior living community. High occupancy rates signal that residents are happy, families trust your care, your reputation is strong, and your community is positioned competitively in the market. It is not just a measure of demand, but the foundation of revenue performance and long-term stability.
What to track:
Resident satisfaction is one of the clearest leading indicators of resident retention. Because residents usually become dissatisfied long before deciding to leave, this is an opportunity to fix the problem proactively. Most operators track resident satisfaction using third-party surveys or feedback tools.
However, it is important to remember that dissatisfaction can also stem from misunderstanding the care that’s being delivered. That is where data can help demonstrate touchpoints and provide backup during tough conversations about increasing levels of care.
What to track:
Senior living is powered by extraordinary people. Though caregivers could make an equivalent wage in retail, food services, or other industries, they opt to work in assisted living because the work matters. They do it because they care. At Sage, we are focused on giving caregivers tools to more effectively live out their vocation.
Caregiver satisfaction is linked to both employee retention and resident experience. When caregivers feel valued and supported, they are less likely to leave. That consistency matters to families. They don’t want a stranger helping their loved one, they want the caregiver they know and trust.
What to track:
Few metrics shape the perception of a senior living community like response times. Slow responses can erode trust, create frustration, leave families questioning the quality of care, and lead to worse health outcomes for residents. They are often a sign that your caregivers are overworked and nearing burnout. And, for operators, response times are a liability issue. In lawsuits, call response times are often broadly used as a proxy for the quality of care, especially in the case of falls.
What to track:
Shifting from reactive to proactive care helps operators schedule caregivers more accurately, reduce volatility, and ensure caregivers and operators get credit for the full scope of their work. Credit comes in a lot of forms—emotional credit for the teams who want to see their efforts recognized, acknowledgement from families who see care being thoroughly documented, and financial credit for operators who deserve to be sufficiently compensated for the services they are providing.
We will never get that number to zero, but keeping it low is ideal. Once we do that, a spike in unplanned care can more clearly reveal an emerging resident need or potential risk escalation. Tracking level of care (LOC) is equally critical. It ensures staffing aligns with actual needs, reduces liability, and increases NOI by properly matching billing with true service delivery.
What to track:
The industry has tracked individual resident falls for years but, too often, that data disappears into a paper file. Operators need to not only see those numbers, but know how to use them for fall prevention.
That is where health trend data comes in. With Sage Detect, our AI-powered fall detection, we’re working toward that future. Beyond fall monitoring, Sage Detect actively surfaces abnormal or dangerous activity and gives visibility into wellness trends like sleep quality, activity levels, and bathroom frequency. These indicators can help caregivers intervene early and effectively.
What to track:
The healthier and more satisfied residents are, the longer they stay in a community. And the longer they stay, the happier they and their friends are—because it is a trusted home, not a revolving door.
Sometimes length of stay is out of an operator’s control. Residents pass away, experience financial instability, or decide to move closer to family. This became a particular challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic when we saw memory care length of stay drop from two years to one because residents were delaying their arrival to senior housing and, therefore, coming in with higher acuity. However, more times than not, length of stay is a great way to look holistically at health and satisfaction.
What to track:
The industry cannot rely on paper folders or siloed systems anymore. We need to be able to track data and speak knowledgeably about it with residents and families. And remember: data is only as good as the follow up. Operators can collect all the data they want, but if that information isn’t actionable—or if it is not acted upon—then it becomes irrelevant. However, when used effectively, data can become one of the most powerful tools at an operator’s disposal.
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