Abstract
Standardizing seniors housing industry definitions by project type would improve decision making in the industry. The problem is not a lack of definitions; rather, there is minimal agreement on precise definitions. This poses an immediate practical problem for seniors housing institutional investment. Inability to define the business prevents measurement of performance. If they cannot measure performance, investors will not be able to measure the risk and the return. Finally, owners and managers will not have the means to benchmark their performance with industry norms, therefore, standardized data is needed to enhance performance.
This paper points out the difficulty with current seniors housing definitions and provides a potential solution. By defining the categories operationally, seniors housing candidates—as well as project types—may be categorized objectively rather than subjectively or arbitrarily. Under the current definitional regime, terms such as “nursing home” can mean very different things in terms of an individual’s ability to function, considering the varying uses of the term in the states of Washington and Oregon, for example.
The choice of categories is currently qualitative and discontinuous in the seniors housing industry. It could be continuous and numerical. Research suggests that industry-standard definitions can be developed by linking a Gutman-type functional disability scale with projects by the types of services they deliver. This would allow analysts to more precisely calculate the most effective and efficient way to deliver a level of care.
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Anikeeff, M.A., Mueller, G.R. (1998). Toward Standardizing Seniors Housing Industry Definitions by Project Type. In: Anikeeff, M.A., Mueller, G.R. (eds) Seniors Housing. Research Issues in Real Estate, vol 4. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6067-8_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6067-8_7
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