Is southwest Missouri prepared for its baby boomers to retire? With many area nursing homes already at capacity, local leaders say there is work to be done, and fast.
A November study by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services found by the year 2020, the Springfield metropolitan statistical area will need an another 908 skilled nursing facility beds and 329 assisted living facility beds to keep up with the growing demand.
“The population needing our services is about to double,” said Ozark Riverview Manor Administrator Judy Carte, noting the nursing home industry has been talking about the trend a few years. “There has been a lot of education from professional organizations on this, but ultimately, we are just going to need more facilities built.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 1946 and 1964, some 76 million babies were born in the United States, with 8.18 births every minute during the peak in 1957. Baby boomers now make up 24.3 percent of the total U.S. population and, as of 2011, they are hitting retirement age. The last of the boomers will turn 65 in 2029, and the 65-plus population segment is projected to double to 71.5 million by 2030 and grow to 86.7 million by 2050.
“2020 is basically five years from now, and Greene County needs 373 assisted living beds by then. We need to build about 75 per year,” said Brad Eldridge, executive director of The Fremont Senior Living. “I just don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Shortage to the southChristian County could be the hardest hit by the boom, with DHSS projecting a need for 513 additional skilled nursing beds, more than half the total beds needed in the MSA, comprising Christian, Dallas, Greene, Polk and Webster counties.
“Our skilled care operates at about 98 percent capacity all the time, and we generally have a wait list,” Carte said of Ozark Riverview Manor, which offers skilled care, residential care and independent living.
Carte said the average wait list time is about two weeks, with roughly 10 people on the list at any given time.
“Since the need is immediate for most, many find a new facility before we get to them,” she added.
Christian County will soon get a boost as a $15 million senior living campus is poised to take shape in Ozark.
The Healthcare Facilities Review Committee of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services granted Focused Senior Communities a certificate of need Nov. 3, giving it the green light for development. The campus plan comprises eight 7,000-square-foot homes, each with a central dining room, hearth room and open kitchen surrounded by 10 private resident rooms with private bathrooms.
Focused Senior Communities CEO Al Beamer said the 80-bed facility is a drop in the bucket overall – about 15 percent of the total need – but it’s a start.
“We are experiencing a graying of America with about 10,000 people turning 65 each day,” he said. “Christian County has a large need and the solution needs to start somewhere.”
Research by the St. Charles-based company found within a 15-mile radius of the proposed campus, there is a need for 691 skilled nursing beds. Slated for construction at at U.S. Highway 65 and state Route CC, Beamer said that count partially reaches into southern Greene County.
“We chose Christian County because it can’t keep up with its own growth. In our area, in St. Louis, we are over by about 2,000 beds. We don’t need facilities here,” he said, noting the company also is researching other areas of the state.
According to the DHSS study, the city and county of St. Louis will have a surplus of 2,271 skilled care beds in 2020.
Next generation nursing homesUnlike the greatest generation currently occupying nursing homes, baby boomers tend to be more independent and want freedom. Eldridge said residents at Fremont Senior Living want poker nights, trips to Branson, dinner at Lambert’s Cafe and movie nights.
“Boomers are independent. They don’t want meat loaf and green beans for dinner. They want a menu and a waiter,” he said.
“How nursing homes serve people is evolving and the facilities that progress with the times are going to have even more demand.”
Adding 38,000 square feet and 72 new assisted living and memory care beds to the community in mid-2013, Eldridge said it took just eight months to bring the $5.6 million expansion to capacity.
“We’ve moved in 140 people in the first year and a half,” he said, adding the Fremont’s independent living facilities also are at capacity. “Others, more traditional facilities, haven’t filled as fast and others in the area sit at about 90 percent. I think that’s telling of what this new generation is looking for as they age.”
Focused Senior Communities’ Beamer said some boomers may seek traditional nursing home environments, but he predicts the majority won’t.
“There is going to be a building boom across the country and there needs to be a variety,” he said. “These boomers are a different generation; they don’t want the warehouse homes their parents had.”
Set for completion in fall 2015, the Ozark campus will be built under the Green House Project model, a national nonprofit organization that promotes individualized care in smaller homes. Currently, there are 170 Green House homes operating in 27 states and 130 more in the pipeline across another five states.
In already established homes, such as Ozark Riverview Manor, Carte said administrators are looking for ways to shake up offerings and retool facilities to a changing customer base.
“This whole new generation has a whole new set of requests,” she said. “They want things like a computer lab and more technology. We have to find a way to give them that.”
As new facilities come online, Eldridge said the stagnant perception of nursing homes is gradually changing to a place older adults want to be, and that’s being spearheaded by the boomers.
“We hear it every day, ‘I promised I would never put him in a home,’” he said. “But a lot has changed in that last 10 years. Nursing homes aren’t these bad, clinical places that smell anymore.
“They aren’t a place to just go die. They are full of life.”
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