Nonprofit senior living provider CHI Living Communities is continuing to grow in 2025, with plans to expand and upgrade communities with new services and renovations.
That growth includes expanding services in states such as Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska, and the organization is engaged in master-planning efforts to eventually pursue partnerships with health care partners in those markets.
Later this year, CHI Living is set to begin renovations on some its Ohio communities that will support the company’s vision for a model for senior living services where larger communities act as “hubs” with available health services to support surrounding areas, according to CHI Living Communities CEO Prentice Lipsey.
“Our goal is to identify potential partners who can help bring the clubhouse, central hub-and-spoke model to life within housing developments focused on seniors. The aim is to help them age in place,” Lipsey said during the latest episode of the Transform podcast.
These future clubhouses within communities will provide services tied to care navigation, annual wellness visits, advanced care planning and establishing personalized services for residents.
Lipsey also sees future opportunities in expanding wellness-based services for residents.
“By controlling expenses, we can allocate resources for future needs or improvements in resident wellness,” Lipsey said.
A bright spot in operations for CHI include the company’s success on hiring and retention, with Lipsey noting that employees are slowly returning to the health care field after years of burnout from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It’s our responsibility to retain these quality individuals once they join our workforce and ensure we remain a premier service provider and an employer of choice,” Lipsey said during the episode.
Oregon, Ohio-based CHI Living Communities operates 13 communities in seven states.
Listen to the full Transform episode here:
On CHI’s 2025 effort ahead:
I would characterize 2025 as having several key areas of outlook. There is a growing demand for senior living and senior housing, with 12,000 people turning 65 each day in the United States. This highlights the need for more housing, senior services and community-based support.The industry has two major challenges—staffing needs and rising inflation—both of which are driving a greater focus on innovation and technology. Another emerging area, which has always been fundamental and is the reason I am in the senior living space, is wellness. Ensuring a holistic wellness program for seniors in our communities remains a top priority.
We are focusing on resident days as a fundamental metric to ensure we are responsible stewards of those we serve. This means everything comes down to census—understanding our current needs based on the number of residents and ensuring we manage costs effectively. By controlling expenses, we can allocate resources for future needs or improvements in resident wellness. These metrics remain our focus, emphasizing operational efficiency, resident satisfaction and financial performance, all of which are important.
On CHI’s occupancy recovery:
I want to highlight that I have observed the same trend across the industry. In CHI Living Communities, we have experienced month-over-month occupancy growth for the past eight months, which reinforces this pattern
On incorporating wellness into CHI operations:
When I think about wellness, I consider its impact on residents and our goal of adding successful aging years to their lives. Wellness involves understanding what contributes to successful aging—engagement, social interaction, activities of daily living and preventing hospital readmissions to support aging in place. These are the key wellness areas we focus on, as they directly impact residents’ lives.
On care navigation and service alignment with CommonSpirit:
There are six core elements we focus on when considering wellness, navigation and alignment with our system. We are refining what this means within the continuum of care, which we call the Continuum of Care Connections programs.
The first element is having a dedicated navigator—someone who guides seniors through different levels of care, following them through transitions such as hospital stays and visits to their primary care provider.
The second element involves wellness models centered on virtual and remote patient monitoring, allowing us to keep an eye on residents who desire additional support to ensure their safety and comfort.
The third element focuses on recovery care, including emerging options like cottage recovery care, where residents can recover from surgeries or illnesses in a supportive environment equipped with remote monitoring technology, clinical oversight and enhanced care coordination with home care services.
The fourth element, catered living services, combines home care with private duty services, offering personalized support such as home modifications, meal delivery and other amenities that enhance residents’ quality of life in a home-like setting.
Finally, the program is overseen by an advanced practice provider who ensures seamless integration. This oversight allows for referrals and coordination with community services, home care agencies and healthcare partners—driven by the needs identified by the primary caregiver.
Navigation is my answer to everything because it helps reduce hospital readmissions, improve care coordination and lower healthcare costs by identifying early where a patient or resident needs to go within the health system. This is the core of value-based care—placing individuals in the right setting, at the right time, with the right cost and quality. Early identification enhances all these aspects while improving resident outcomes by ensuring they are in the safest and most appropriate care environment.
The launch of CHI cottage care model:
Imagine a home environment where hospital case managers work to determine what a patient needs to return home and receive services. However, a person’s home may not always be conducive to recovery for various reasons—such as multiple flights of stairs, lack of personal space, or inadequate Wi-Fi connectivity for essential services. This is where the cottage recovery concept comes in.
Our communities offer single-story, ranch-style cottage homes—renovated one- and two-bedroom units designed to provide a comfortable, relaxing environment that fosters recovery. These spaces are tailored to help individuals focus on what matters most—healing. The cottage recovery model also allows family members to visit and stay in a welcoming, home-like setting.
Unlike traditional skilled nursing facilities, this model eliminates the need for formal reception areas and sign-in procedures, creating a more inviting atmosphere. The homes are equipped with advanced technology to enhance the recovery experience and the two-bedroom units provide space for loved ones to stay and support the resident’s journey to wellness.
On the use of the hub-and-spoke model:
I think the last time we discussed the hub-and-spoke model, it was more of a concept. We are now proving these concepts each day and moving toward the future. Consider it in terms of a centralized set of services originating from a clubhouse within a community. The clubhouse provides services related to care navigation, with an advanced practice provider conducting annual wellness visits, advanced care planning and setting up catered living services for our residents.
Housing will play a crucial role in the development, growth and expansion of senior living. This may involve partnering with housing developers, including various agencies that offer income-subsidized or low-income housing programs. While there are several agencies to consider, our goal is to identify potential partners who can help bring the clubhouse central hub-and-spoke model to life within housing developments focused on seniors. The aim is to help them age in place.
There is no more efficient way to provide successful aging and allow seniors to interact and engage with one another. I often say it’s the college years of being a senior and that’s the design we aim for. We strive to achieve this in an efficient manner while offering the additional services seniors need as they age.
This central model allows us to staff more efficiently and embrace innovation to enhance our operations. We need to do more with less, recognizing the challenges of staffing shortages, with innovation playing a key role. One example is the use of robots in some of our senior living dining rooms. These robots help transport meals from the back of the house to the front, while staff members provide the front-end service and personal touch. This innovation eliminates the need for staff to physically perform tasks that would otherwise require multiple people.
On technology integration into operations and care delivery:
There’s a misconception that seniors are afraid of technology, but when it’s implemented correctly, they adapt to it and accept it. I’ve heard from many people who’ve been in different care settings that when a nurse appears on the TV screen in a home setting to ask if there’s anything they can assist with or check in with guests to make sure everyone is on the same page, it becomes a tool that enhances care. This technology doesn’t distance us from family members, residents, or patients—it helps us focus on what we should be doing: interacting, engaging and finding opportunities to ensure resident safety. I’m a strong supporter of what virtual, remote care offers.
We’re focused on the “four M’s”: What matters, meditation, mobility and medication and we’re adapting that as part of our continuum of care.
On CHI leveraging resources from CommonSpirit:
The best thing we can do as a system of our size is demonstrate that by leveraging information, we can provide a more personalized care approach for each individual who enters our system. At every level of care, we should communicate what’s important to each resident or patient. This isn’t always simple—sometimes it means not assuming a person’s desire to enjoy life.
On current staffing challenges:
We’re in a gig economy and we’ve noticed several ways this impacts our staffing. Currently, we’ve seen a 400-plus increase in the number of employees returning to the field, which we’re happy about. However, we recognize that this influx is partly due to the current economic struggles, which are pushing people back into the workforce. As a result, the need for agency staff has gone down. We’ve operated for several months with minimal agency use and in some cases, we’ve had zero agency staff as we enter 2025. This gives me a positive outlook for staffing. While I dislike the reason behind the increase, I believe it’s our responsibility to retain these quality individuals once they join our workforce and ensure we remain a premier service provider and an employer of choice.
Outlook for 2025:
I think really my outlook and where I see things going is to innovate, embrace technology, prioritize resident wellbeing so that we can be positioned for success.
