It’s time we integrate medical care into assisted living

Assisted living communities are now the fastest-growing component of post-acute and long-term care, or PALTC, in the United States. As residents have gotten older and their health conditions more medically complex, these communities are looking more like nursing homes did 30 years ago, while for their part nursing homes are looking more and more like small hospitals.

Responding to these trends over the past few years, AMDA –The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to work toward consensus on how best to address the growing and increasingly complex health care needs of assisted living residents in a consistent, optimal way. This will require a cultural shift from owners and operators, who will need to embrace the fact (with some reluctance) that assisted living communities no longer are simply a social / hospitality model; they have become an important healthcare setting within PALTC.