There is no doubt that there is change in the air.  We’ve all recently experienced a change in government, a change of season and lots of changes in the senior care market.  For the time being, in fact, change is the only constant we can reasonably expect since there are surely more changes ahead of us.  What does all of this mean to our work in support of our clients?

As I have observed the most well-managed long term care and assisted living businesses over the past several months I have seen a couple of things that they have ...

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Not long ago I saw a startling statistic: an online job site focused on nursing professionals added over 12,000 nursing jobs in just one week.  Not only that, the site�??s overall job nursing job count totaled nearly 90,000 jobs.  That is staggering!  Whether you are a Director of Nursing trying to keep a building fully staffed or a long term care Administrator trying to keep your building�??s budget in the black by minimizing/eliminating registry nurses, the challenge is great. Our view of the market indicates that many nurses in high demand are able to get ...

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There is an intriguing trend showing up in assisted living, skilled nursing and other senior care facilities nationwide�?�video games.  Specifically, the Nintendo Wii game console has proven to be extremely effective at increasing the activity level of seniors.  Rehab directors and nursing home administrators report that the Wii consoles allow seniors to simulate sports they used to participate in at an earlier time in their lives.

Not only that, activity directors have seen an increase in family interaction when senior care residents challenge their grandchildren at skiing or tennis or golf, without ever leaving their nursing facilities.  The video ...

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It is hard to look at the news or read a business-oriented magazine these days without seeing the word bailout�?�usually screaming in large, bold type.  While today�??s bailout discussions involving the financial services markets are current events, the article below describes a potentially even more massive bailout of Medicare in the not-too-distant future. 

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/columnists/wmckenzie/stories/DN-mckenzie_07edi.State.Edition1.b82bce.html

Though the scale is enormous, at least this bailout is far enough in front of us to plan for an orderly workout of the situation.  Here�??s hoping there ...

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Here is an interesting analogy that is used to illustrate the main reason why government-funded healthcare expenses rise so high and so fast:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080617/OPINION01/806170311/1008

Now imagine if the industry in which you work were primarily funded by a source that, it can be modeled with accuracy, is scheduled to run dry.  Where would that leave you as a service provider?

Recruiting is already enough like three dimensional chess that it sometimes makes it a challenge to set aside the time to absorb industry information such as this.   However ...

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I read a news story today that caught me off-guard.  It concerned the impact of the soft residential real estate market on the senior care industry.  The story profiled several Florida-based operators of life-care communities, commonly known as Continuing Care Retirement Communities or CCRCs.  These communities provide a range of care that runs from activities for active seniors to assisted living and skilled nursing for those who need it.  The cost to join one of these communities is steep; the article quoted buy-ins ranging from $75,000 to $500,000 which typically involves the sale of the resident�??s home ...

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Sometimes the simple rules are the best.  For example:

Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You.

I was thinking about the Golden Rule this morning as I reflected on the dynamics of our market right now.  For some of our job categories there are way more candidates than there are opportunities, which results in a surplus of candidates?anxious candidates at that. 

At first glance it might seem too time consuming and inefficient to get back to each individual candidate and apprise them of the status of the search.  The dealmaker inside us says that is ...

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The headlines are all around us:  inflation is rising at the highest rate in 17 years, the stock market is losing value on inflation fears, consumers are spending less causing the economy to slow down, deep trouble in the real estate finance markets is placing a drag on broader financial markets.  What does that have to do with healthcare recruiting?

Right now we are seeing among our clients in Southern California the lowest number of active searches in more than two years.  Our market started to slow down in November last year and it has not picked up as I ...

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Every so often a study comes along and validates what you already believe to be true.  That just happened to me with a study recently published in the 2007 Seniors Housing & Care Journal, and the results seem absolutely congruent with anecdotal evidence of the same phenomena.

The study says that turnover will remain high (40%) for Nursing Home Administrators (NHAs) nationwide.  More troubling, though, is the observation that an alarmingly high number of NHAs, three in four, are considering leaving the industry.  The chief culprit in this implied lack of job satisfaction is the ever-increasing burden of legal and regulatory ...

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It is interesting to watch the employee landscape change in senior care and see how those changes impact management responsibilities.  Beyond the technical metrics having to do with certain staffing levels being met and certain positions requiring certain credentials, there is a new wrinkle that managers are now recognizing.

I won?t startle anyone when I observe that there has been a long-term shortage of clinical talent in the United States.  There have been lots of schemes, big and small, to ?import? talent from overseas.  For a while it was Philippine nurses who were seen in the largest numbers, then ...

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Welcome to Senior Care Notes, an informal blog that will pay special attention to recruiting issues and trends affecting the senior care market.  Since my mother is from North Carolina and drilled the importance of polite behavior into me from an early age, please allow me to introduce myself in a way that will give you some perspective on my observations about the industry and the evolving role of recruiting in moving the industry forward. 

My name is Richard Detoy and I have been a recruiter and management consultant since 1980.  On the corporate side of the desk I have ...

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