Seniors Housing Business

ASHA 2016

Seniors Housing Business is the magazine that helps you navigate the evolution of the seniors housing industry.

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AS H A 2016 ASHA 50 67 2016 By Matt Valley Editor Seniors Housing Business At 25 years old, the Amer- ican Seniors Housing Association (ASHA) is celebrating a milestone this year. But rather than simply reflecting on past accomplishments and allowing complacency to sink in, ASHA President David Schless is hard at work overseeing the implementation of a bold strategic plan that aims to serve the organization's approximately 450 mem- bers in new and exciting ways through 2020. Topping the list is the consumer education promotional campaign and website — "Where You Live Matters" — that ASHA spent a year-and-a-half conceiv- ing and developing, and which launched at the start of February. The goal of the website is to empower consumers to make informed decisions about the various senior living options available. "You just knew from the very first meeting that you were going to be involved in something that had the potential to be enormously helpful and impactful for the industry, and more impor- tantly for the consumer," says Schless. (For more on the consumer website, see page 63.) That's just one component of the five-point strategic plan, which also calls for bolstering research efforts, fostering leadership development, broad- ening the advocacy program, and restructuring some of the organization's key meetings. Schless, who's led ASHA since its beginning in 1991, sat down for an interview to high- light the progress made during the first year of the five-year plan. Forging Research Alliances Q: Can you tell us what initiatives or studies you have undertaken on the research front? David Schless: When ASHA was created in 1991, research was one of the key areas of focus for us. Initially, we were highly focused on trying to benchmark the revenue and expense side of the business, the operational metrics. Obviously, that is a broad industry effort now published annually as The State of Seniors Housing. We're very proud of having played a leader- ship role in that effort. We then began focusing on consumer research and trying to better understand who lives in our buildings, and who doesn't live in our buildings but would likely benefit from our product. The adult children of our consumers are particu- larly interesting to us. Even though they are in younger age cohorts, they under- stand our product as it exists right now. They have been exposed to it, so their perspectives have been of particular value to us as we try to help our members anticipate the future. We've begun to expand our research agenda in a couple of areas. One thing we did was to make a commitment to Cornell University. We became a founding partner in the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures. (Its mission is to provide a multi-disciplinary platform for integrat- ing hospitality, health management/policy and design thinking to enhance service excellence in health- care, wellness, senior living and related industries.) We're excited about that new partnership. There is tremendous upside for the industry in working with a prestigious univer- sity like Cornell that houses programs that are central to service excellence in senior living: design, health management and hospitality. Q: How much is hospi- tality a part of senior living today? I ask because in hospitality you're not delivering an assisted living product. Schless: Most people would tell you that we have a strong element of hospitality that runs through all of these com- munities, including senior apartments as well as the more health-oriented, higher-acuity settings. When many companies in the industry look to recruit young talent, they are looking more and more at hospitality programs at universities. Putting bold ideas into action First-year rollout of ASHA's aggressive five-year strategic plan proves fruitful ASHA President David Schless is particularly proud of the organization's new consumer website: "You just knew from the very first meeting that you were going to be involved in something that had the potential to be enor- mously helpful and impactful for the industry, and more importantly for the consumer."

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