Some of Broadway’s biggest child stars — Corey J from The Lion King and MJ: The Musical, Benjamin Pajak from “The Music Man,” “Oliver!,” and “Golden Rainbow,” Aria Kane from “Frozen Broadway,” and Jillian Platero from “The Lion King” — recently performed for residents of Inspīr Carnegie Hill in Manhattan.

Many of the residents’ grandkids and great-grandkids enjoyed the performances as well.

Inspīr has hosted numerous performers from the Great White Way — including Alex Edelman, Jeffrey Seller, Manny Azenberg, Lisa Howard, Michael Winther, Julie Benko,  Talia Suskauer, Ari Axelrod, Natalie Joy Johnson, Timothy Hughes and more — but this was the first time the community heard from some of Broadway’s youngest performers, who shared with residents their experiences growing up in the limelight.

Evan Rossi, senior director of resident experience, has forged connections to the theater world to make the performances possible. Sometimes, performers even initiate the request to perform at Inspīr.

Inspīr Carnegie Hill was developed by Maplewood Senior Living in partnership with Omega Healthcare Investors.

See the In Focus archive, and find out how to submit your photos and information for consideration, here.

That level is significantly above the national average. Senior living occupancy is on its way to 10 consecutive quarters of positive growth, according to NIC MAP Vision’s November intra-quarterly snapshot report. Even so, those data showed that the overall occupancy rate for the 31 primary markets examined increased to 86.1% in November.

Maplewood operates in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Ohio. The company has 15 senior living properties, one of which also offers skilled nursing, under the Maplewood name, as well as the Inspīr Carnegie Hill luxury senior living community on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. An additional property, Inspīr Embassy Row, a luxury high-rise, is slated to be completed in Washington, DC, in 2024. The Inspīr brand, officially launched in 2017, is geared toward older adults living in major urban markets.

“We continue to be excited by the strong occupancy numbers at Inspīr and are thrilled that the balance of the Maplewood Senior Living portfolio has achieved a 95% occupancy rate,” Maplewood Chief Operating Officer Shane Herlet said in a press release. 

Herlet told the McKnight’s Business Daily that the communities’ success starts with their staff members.

“I know that can be cliché at times, but without the talented folks that we have running our buildings and going to work there each and every day, providing those great experiences for the residents, we would not be able to achieve those results,” he said.

To that end, he said, Maplewood has invested in recruiting and retaining the members of its workforce.

“We’ve put forth incredible wage growth efforts, training initiatives, non-direct compensation considerations; e.g. 401(k) enhancements, tuition reimbursement — everything that we can do to increase the length of stay for our associates — because we feel that that is a direct correlation with the length of stay of our residents,” Herlet said.

Catching up on Omega rent deferrals

Earlier this year, Omega Healthcare Investors announced a lease restructuring plan with Maplewood. The Hunt Valley, MD-based real estate investment trust said at the time that it intended to defer Maplewood’s rent escalators through 2025, as well as interest on a $250.5 million secured revolving credit facility. Cash interest payments are planned to be phased in starting next year.

According to Omega, in November, Maplewood paid $3.5 million less than its contractual rent and was anticipated to pay $3 million less than its contractual rent in December.

Maplewood Chief Investment Officer Tom Gaston told the McKnight’s Business Daily that Omega has “been an incredible partner.”

“They’ve been our sole source of capital, and we’re just about there,” he said, adding that Maplewood expects to catch up with its obligations to Omega during 2024. 

Gaston attributed many of the company’s year-end shortfalls as “just a residual” from the sudden death last spring of Inspīr President and CEO Gregory Smith. 

With a background in real estate development and hospitality, Smith founded Maplewood and its Inspīr brand, with the first Maplewood community, Maplewood at Danbury, in Danbury, CT, opening in 2006.

“It’s really no reflection on the operating performance whatsoever,” Gaston said.

One of those restructured operators is Westport, CT-based Maplewood Senior Living, with which Omega had agreed to a formal restructuring in the first quarter of the year. According to Omega, in November, Maplewood paid $3.5 million less than its contractual rent, and the company is anticipated to pay $3 million less than its contractual rent in December.

Additionally, LaVie Care Centers, formally known as Consulate Health Care, has fallen behind in its restructuring agreement with Omega. LaVie paid $1.4 million in rent in November, which is below its previous run-rate of $2.5 million per month. The REIT said that it is unclear what the company will pay in December. 

The combined effect of the expected shortfalls means that “we no longer expect our fourth quarter FAD [funds available for distribution] to approximate our dividend,” according to Omega.

The company’s most recent quarterly dividend of $0.67 per share on its common stock was announced Oct. 20 and distributed Nov. 15. 

In the long run, the REIT said it still has confidence in the value and cash flow of both companies. 

“We continue to work diligently to resolve our outstanding operator issues. However, until we reach agreements with these operators, the ultimate resolution of these operator issues is unknown,” Omega said.

Cleaner, companion, security guard: You can add “clinician’s assistant” to the growing list of roles robots are playing in senior living and care settings. 

A multi-state senior living operator has started a pilot program in which physicians remotely pilot a robot, Temi, equipped with medical tools, to provide geriatric consultations.

Maplewood Senior Living, which has become known for continually upgrading technology in its communities, began the pilot program by conducting its first virtual, robot-assisted appointment, the company announced Thursday. 

The Temi robots are enabled with artificial intelligence and equipped with medical tools such as a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff. The clinician conducting the telehealth call can “drive” Temi into a resident room for an assessment; the mobile interface also allows off-site personnel to inspect the residents’ living arrangements.

The concept is intended to provide residents with a user-friendly interface for the telehealth visits, a Maplewood Senior Living spokesman said.

“Temi represents a pivotal moment in geriatric care,“ Morgan Iorio, Maplewood’s corporate director of business development, said in a statement Thursday. “Access to specialized geriatric services is often delayed by insufficient availability and local resources, which can adversely impact our seniors. I am thrilled about the opportunity for revolutionizing the way we deliver care to our older adults.”

Maplewood, which operates 16 senior living communities across five states, recently installed a system, AUGi, at its Bethel, CT, site. It passively monitors residents’ activity patterns, such as sleeping, to help prevent falls. 

For its pilot program with AUGi, Maplewood won a Bronze Award in the Innovator of the Year category in the Senior Living track of the 2023 McKnight’s Excellence in Technology Awards program.

Earlier versions of Temi’s robots helped another senior living operator, Williamsburg Landing, win its own McKnight’s Tech Award — a Gold — back in 2020.

Maplewood also acquired two Temi models for its communities that year, although at the time, the Temi was intended to be used for companionship and social distancing activities, as opposed to facilitating more sophisticated telehealth check-ins.

Omega Healthcare Investors continued to see financial performance that exceeded its expectations in the third quarter, executives of the Hunt Valley, MD-based real estate investment trust said Friday, as occupancy improves and the tight labor market moderates. Some operators, however, such as Maplewood Senior Living, continue to struggle, necessitating restructurings and rent deferrals, they said.

As previously reported, Westport, CT-based Maplewood short-paid its June rent by $1 million, and the company continued to short-pay its rent by $1 million per month during the third quarter. Omega applied $3 million of Maplewood’s $4.8 million security deposit to those rent shortalls. In October, the REIT applied an additional $1 million of Maplewood’s security deposit to its rent shortfall.

The company recorded $17.3 million in revenue from Maplewood during the third quarter, consisting of $14.3 million of contractual rent payments and the $3 million security deposit application. During the nine months that ended Sept. 30, Omega had allowed Maplewood to defer a total of $1.3 million in contractual rent and interest.

Omega had entered a formal restructuring agreement with Maplewood in the first quarter, which included funding $22.5 million of capital expenditures through Dec. 31, 2025.

Friday on a third-quarter earnings call, Chief Operating Officer Dan Booth said that the REIT is working with the operator and the estate of Greg Smith to address the operator’s shortfalls. Smith was president and CEO of Maplewood and its Inspīr luxury brand when he died unexpectedly on March 31.

With anticipated rate hikes in January and expected improved occupancy, Booth said, Maplewood believes that it has a pathway forward to meet its full contractual obligations, although the timing remains unknown.

Booth added that Omega also is working with several other small operators on various restructurings.

Investment pipeline ‘opportunistic’

In the third quarter, Omega closed on $160 million in investments, including $24 million in capital expenditures, including the acquisition of 14 care homes in the United Kingdom for $39.5 million. As of Sept. 30, the company had closed on $418 million in new investments, including $53 million in capital expenditures for the year, the COO said.

During the third quarter, Omega received $99 million in proceeds related to facility sales. As of Sept. 30, the company had sold 27 facilities for $161 million and had 14 facilities listed as held for sale.

Subsequent to the end of the third quarter, the company has closed on $60.7 million in new investments, including the acquisition of two Pennsylvania assisted living communities. Chief Financial Officer Bob Stephenson described the potential investment pipeline as “opportunistic.” 

National HealthCare Corp.

National Healthcare Corp. reported a 6.5% year-over-year increase in net operating revenues and grant income for the third quarter, $288.4 million in 2023 compared with $270.8 million a year ago.

Excluding the seven skilled nursing facilities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire where the Murfreesboro, TN-based company ceased operation in September 2022, same-facility net operating revenues increased 11.8% during the third quarter of 2023 compared with the same period a year ago.

Net income in the quarter was $10.3 million, compared with a net loss of $2.4 million for the same period in 2022. Adjusted net income for the third quarter was $13.2 compared with $7.7 million for the same quarter a year ago.

The increase in earnings for the third quarter of this year compared with the same quarter “was primarily due to the continued occupancy increase in our skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, skilled nursing per diem increases from some of our government payors, and the continued reduction of nurse agency staffing expenses within our operations,” the NHC said in a press release. 

NHC also announced Friday that on Feb. 1 it will pay a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per common share to shareholders of record as of Dec. 29.

NHC affiliates operate for themselves and for third parties 68 skilled nursing facilities, 26 assisted living communities, five independent living communities, 35 home care agencies, 30 hospice agencies and three behavioral health hospitals. NHC’s other services include Alzheimer’s and memory care units, pharmacy services, a rehabilitation services company, and providing management and accounting services to third-party post-acute operators.

Omega Healthcare Investors

Omega Healthcare Investors continued to work to strengthen its liquidity and capital in the third quarter while working to protect its overall cost of debt, Chief Financial Officer Bob Stephenson said Friday.

“Our third-quarter financial performance exceeded our expectations on higher-than-expected interest income and unanticipated rent payments from some operators on a cash basis,” Taylor Pickett, CEO of the Hunt Valley, MD-based real estate investment trust, said in a press release issued in conjunction with the REIT’s third-quarter earnings call. 

Omega completed $106 million in new investments during the quarter, an amount that included $55 million in real estate acquisitions, $26 million in real estate loans and $24 million in capital renovation and construction projects. 

Additionally during the third quarter, Omega received $99 million in proceeds related to facility sales. As of Sept. 30, Omega had sold 27 facilities in the third quarter for a total of $161 million in gross proceeds. After the end of the quarter, on Nov. 1, Omega sold for $305.2 million 29 skilled nursing facilities that had been leased to LaVie Care Centers; the total consisted of $91.9 million in gross cash proceeds and $213.3 million for the pay-off of HUD-related mortgages.

Net income for the quarter of $94 million, or $0.37 per common share, compared with $105 million, or $0.43 per common share, for the same period in 2022. Nareit funds from operations, or FFO, for the quarter was $161 million, or $0.63 per share, compared with $159 million, or $0.65 per share, for the third quarter of 2022. Adjusted FFO was $182 million, or $0.71 per share for the quarter. 

Funds available for destruction, or FAD, was $174 million, or $0.68 per share, $0.02 below the second quarter FAD of $0.70.

“The $0.02 decrease compared to the second quarter was primarily the result of LaVie, cash-based operators and the impact of additional weighted average shares, partially offset by the incremental short-term investment income,” Stephenson said. “Our fourth-quarter FAD will be impacted by a number of items, including the timing of payments received from cash-based operators and the availability of security deposits.” 

Stephenson said that Omega paid off a $350 million bond that matured in August. Additionally, the REIT entered into a $428.5 million term loan that has a two-year maturity with two one-year extensions at Omega’s option — effectively, a four-year term loan. 

“We swapped the term loan rate from floating to fixed at just under 5.6%,” he said.

Omega issued 4 million shares, or $126 million of equity, to continue to de-lever. In total, the REIT ended the quarter with more than $550 million of cash on the balance sheet.

For additional coverage of the Omega Healthcare Investors earnings call, including the performance of Maplewood Senior Living, see McKnight’s Senior Living. 

Ventas

Ventas saw normalized funds from operations of $0.75 per share, representing 6% year-over-year growth, and total company same-store cash net operating income growth of almost 8%, Ventas Chair and CEO Deb Carfaro told investors Friday morning.

“Consistent with our expectations, our senior housing operating portfolio (SHOP) led the way, with outstanding occupancy increases from the beginning to the end of the third quarter, across all geographies and product types, including independent living,” she said.

The Chicago-based real estate investment company’s SHOP saw double-digit same-store cash net operating income growth for the fifth consecutive quarter, according to Justin Hutchens, the REIT’s chief investment officer and executive vice president of senior housing.

“The multiyear growth and recovery cycle in senior housing is in full swing,” Cafaro said.

The REIT’s revenue growth was 7.6% year over year, driven by the sequential occupancy growth as well as revenue per occupied room, or RevPOR, growth of 6.2%, Hutchens said.

“As we look to finish the year, we are expecting an attractive top and bottom line SHOP same-store cash NOI growth of 17% to 19% for the full year,” Hutchen said. “The key assumptions that drive the midpoint of our range are average occupancy growth of about 110 basis points and RevPOR growth of about 6%, which was total revenue growth to at least 7.5%.

For additional coverage of the Ventas earnings call, see McKnight’s Senior Living.

Many people believe that artificial intelligence can revolutionize senior care, including, understandably, those who have created companies and organizations that offer AI-enabled services. 

In an environment where older adults are skeptical of AI-led healthcare, however, and in an industry often slow to adopt new tech, it is essential to build a level of trust, says Praveen Soti, CEO of HealthEM.AI.

HealthEM.AI is a data management company that addresses cost of care and matching patients with caregivers. 

In using AI to assist with tasks such as creating a patient risk profile, the key is to demonstrate how and why the AI is functioning, Soti told the McKnight’s Tech Daily on Monday.

“If our AI is making a recommendation to the care manager, how do they trust what recommendations are coming in?” Soti said. “We allow the care manager to see why the platform is making a recommendation, and that creates confidence in the system.”

HealthEM.AI recently announced a partnership with WellBe Senior Medical, which has patients who primarily are served by Medicare and Medicaid Advantage programs. 

For older adults and risk profiles, AI can look at more than 100 million readmission incidents and incorporate new events in real time, to offer recommendations, Soti said. 

Although Soti described HealthEM.AI’s process as fine-tuning the “secret sauce” behind language-learning models, that doesn’t mean end users can’t have a solid understanding of why a decision or recommendation was made. 

The other key to engender use of AI tools is to “infuse” the system into a caregiver’s existing routine, so that it doesn’t feel like a novel or intrusive process, Soti said.

“It’s not something where you click on a button and say, ‘Tell me what to do,’ ” Soti said. “It doesn’t sit outside of the workflow.”

HealthEM.AI is one of many emerging tech startups that are using AI for care management. Another platform, AUGi, was co-developed by Maplewood Senior Living and Inspiren to help predict fall risk within Maplewood’s communities. Other AI tools, such as iQueue Autopilot, are meant exclusively for caregivers and administrators, to streamline scheduling and staffing.

The last AI application especially is indicative of how experts believe the technology should be deployed within healthcare: as a supplement, not a replacement, for caregivers and staff members. 

“Humans will always be there,” Soti said. “What we want to see is the AI boost and assist the productivity of the interactions the care manager is having today. That improves the quality and cost of care.”

An entry from Chapel Hill, NC, continuing care retirement community Carolina Meadows was named Best in Show in the 2023 McKnight’s Excellence in Technology Awards during a virtual ceremony on Wednesday that saw dozens of awards go to senior living, skilled nursing and home care providers, as well as technology company partners to providers, across several categories and tracks.

The Best in Show award, bestowed for an entry titled “Building a Mobile Community with AI Assessments,” about Carolina Meadow’s use of VSTBalance by VirtuSense Technologies, was chosen from all winners across the three tracks of the competition: Senior Living, Skilled Nursing and Home Care. The entry also captured the Gold award in the Building Bridges category of the Senior Living track.

Carolina Meadows, as part of its wellness programming, used the AI-powered fall risk assessment tool to help increase resident mobility, function and gait. Carolina Meadows said that it was introduced to the technology at a campus event in August 2021 and that the technology has become instrumental in supporting residents’ health and wellness as well as in building relationships between residents, fitness staff members, and the community’s leadership. 

The awards presentation capped a McKnight’s Tech Awards + Summit that also included three webinars. Sixteen awards were bestowed across five categories in the Senior Living track during the ceremony.

Senior Living winners

The winners in the five categories of the Senior Living track are listed below.

Innovator of the Year

The Innovator of the Year category recognized technologic innovation deemed to have made a difference in the provision of services or care or the bottom line.

Winning Gold in this category was Concord, CA-based Carlton Senior Living, for “Carlton Senior Living Meets Staffing Needs via Alexa-Enabled Solutions,” about the company’s use of Amazon’s Alexa in multiple ways, working with Speak2.

Carlton said it began using Alexa to lessen the burdens on staff members by enabling residents to ask for help and provide as much information as possible via Alexa devices. Staff members use an app or website. Speak2 helped define and create new workflows and develop new technologies, the provider said.

Other award winners in the Senior Living track’s Innovator of the Year category:

• Silver: The Admiral at the Lake, a Kendal affiliate in Chicago, for “Real-Time Responsive Communication Gives Teams Better Tools,” about the use of the HUCU.ai communication platform by MPAC Healthcare.
• Bronze: Maplewood Senior Living, Westport, CT, for “Using AI/Machine Vision to Keep Residents Safe,” about the use of Inspiren’s AUGi augmented intelligence platform at the Inspir Carnegie Hill senior living community in New York City.

Quality

The Quality category recognized the use of technology to improve the quality of services or care.

Winning Gold was The Forum at Rancho San Antonio, Cupertino, CA, for “Smart Monitoring Prevents Falls in Memory Care,” about its use of VSTAlert from VirtuSense Technologies.

The Forum at Rancho San Antonio, managed by Life Care Services, said it used the VSTAlert solution to support patient safety practices for memory care residents and increase the efficiency of the care team. The solution uses artificial intelligence and sensors to monitor residents for bed or chair exits without using loud alarms, wearables or pressure alarms. The provider said that this capability reduces the monitoring workload from care teams.

Other award winners in the awards in the Senior Living track’s Quality category:

• Silver: St. Charles, MO-based Arrow Senior Living Management, for “Arrow Agetech: Automated Wellness Visit with Machine Learning,” about its use of PointClickCare electronic health records system and Microsoft’s Power B-I.
• Bronze: Lloyd Jones and Aviva Senior Living, Granbury, TX, for “Advanced Technology to Improve Resident Experience,” about its use of Rythmos, from Intrex.

Building Bridges

The Building Bridges category recognized the use of technology deemed to have improved connections between staff members and residents and/or their families.

In addition to Carolina Meadows, which won Gold in this category along with being named Best in Show, other award winners in the Senior Living track’s Building Bridges category were:

• Silver: St. Charles, MO-based Arrow Senior Living Management, for “The Archer Scheduling Tool,” which was developed in-house.
• Bronze: Ingleside, for “Streamlining Communication and Resources,” about its use of the digital platform Cubigo.

Keep It Super Simple

The Keep It Super Simple category recognized simple but effective applications of technology that improved the provision of care, services or operations.

Winning Gold in the category was Des Moines, IA-based Life Care Services, an LCS Company, for “Daily Pay.”

Life Care Services launched DailyPay to employees in February 2022 and credits its use with increasing employee satisfaction and retention, saying that it offers employees improved visibility into and control of their finances. Life Care Services said that it is measuring the platform’s effectiveness when it is used with the Oracle Recruiting Cloud and UKG Dimensions to make the company more attractive as an employer from first interaction to pay day.

Other award winners in the Senior Living track’s Keep It Super Simple category:

• Silver: Des Moines, IA-based LCS, for “ORC: The Benefits of Cloud-Based Recruiting,” about its implementation of the Oracle Recruiting Cloud, part of Oracle’s Cloud Human Capital Management.
• Bronze: Ingleside at King Farm, Rockville, MD, for “The Resident Tech Help Team,” about the community’s Tech Help Team, made up of resident volunteers.

Tech Partner of the Year

In addition to winners in provider categories, winners in the Tech Partner of the Year category also were announced. This category recognized companies that helped operators deliver better services or care or improve their bottom lines, ensuring the field’s continued success.

Winning Gold in this category was Atlanta-based Accushield, for “Gig-Based Flexible Scheduling Software,” about its Flex workforce platform.

Accushield said that Flex is a software as a service-based platform that can be fully implemented in four to six weeks with less than 10 hours of commitment from an operator. The company’s entry discussed Bickford Senior Living’s implementation of the platform in 52 communities, enabling it to save millions in overtime costs and staffing agency usage, according to Accushield.

Other award winners in the Senior Living track of the Tech Partner of the Year category:

• Silver: Belgium-based Nobi, for “AI-Powered Nobi Smart Lamp Detects and Prevents Falls.”
• Bronze (tie): Intrex, Reston, VA, for “Unobtrusive Monitoring of Resident Safety Through Advanced Technology,” about Rythmos, a wearable that encompasses nurse call, access control, wander management and infection control.
• Bronze (tie): SafelyYou, for “AI Reduces Falls, Risks and Costs,” about SafelyYou Respond and SafelyYou Aware.

Award winners were chosen by a 23-member panel of experts who assessed entries for their overall value in improving resident care and services, impact, relevance, execution and creativity.

Additional finalists in the Senior Living track are listed here.

See McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Home Care for more information about the winners in the Skilled Nursing and Home Care tracks, respectively.

More information about the award winners also is available in the virtual awards presentation and will be featured in upcoming articles in the free McKnight’s Senior Living Daily Briefing e-newsletter (sign up here), the McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Daily Update e-newsletter and the McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse e-newsletter as well as in the print magazines of McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.

The webinars and virtual awards presentation of the 2023 McKnight’s Tech Awards + Summit is available for on-demand viewing for a year at https://www.mcknights.com/092023techawards. Free registration is required.

Award winners also will be celebrated in person at a cocktail reception 6-9 p.m. Oct. 2 in Denver. Those planning to attend can RSVP here.

Those with questions about the events should contact Events Manager Jackie Testa at jackie.testa@haymarketmedia.com.

Sponsors of the 2023 McKnight’s Tech Awards + Summit include LifeLoop (formerly iN2L + LifeLoop), IntelyCare, MatrixCare, PointClickCare and ShiftKey + OnShift.