State of Assisted Living Otis Woods, the administrator of the DHS Division of Quality Assurance, gave a brief report on the State of Assisted Living in Wisconsin. He said there was a slight dip in the number of licensed long-term care and assisted-living facilities in 2017 compared to the previous year. He expects that to go back up again this year, as the AL industry has been on an upswing over the past few years.
Meanwhile, average capacity is increasing with more larger facilities, leading to concerns by DHS officials on whether those large facilities will have enough staff to provide needed services for many residents in light of the paid caregiver shortages.
Woods also noted that falls continue to be a concern - with 55 percent of all facility self-reports in 2017 related to resident falls.
DHS has asked the UW-Madison LaFollette School of Public Affairs to conduct a survey of assisted living facilities to see how technology is being used. The survey results will be analyzed to see if any flexibilities could be allowed to make caregiving more efficient due to technology advances. A report will be forwarded to DHS Secretary Linda Seemeyer in May with a report published to stakeholders shortly thereafter.