Assisted living is the fastest growing sector of “housing with supportive services.” While aging in place is an important tenet of the assisted living philosophy, departures or discharges from assisted living are a fact of life. This paper provides information on departures from assisted living facilities (ALFs), the reasons for departure, and those resident and facility characteristics that affected the likelihood of residents’ departures. The paper focuses on a nationally-representative sample of ALFs in 1998 that offered either a relatively high level of services or of privacy. Our estimates from this national sample indicate that approximately 24 percent of residents left an ALF over the course of 12 months. One-third of the residents who left a study ALF between baseline and follow-up (roughly 8% of all residents on a yearly basis) either died in the ALF or elsewhere. The bulk of the remainder who left went to a nursing home or some other residential care setting or ALF. On an annualized basis, 8 percent of all residents went to a nursing home and 4 percent of all residents moved to some other residential care setting. The most common reason cited by respondents for leaving an ALF was the need for more care. Multivariate analyses of these data provide insight into which individual and facility characteristics affected a resident’s likelihood of leaving an ALF.
Learning Objectives: 1. To understand factors influencing utilization of assisted living
Keywords: Health Care Utilization,
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.