Ascent Living Overhauls Operations With New Tech In Prelude To Growth

Ascent Living Communities is overhauling operations with new technology while also preparing to methodically grow in the coming years.

The Centennial, Colorado-based senior living provider has taken a geographic-centric approach to growth with six communities in the state. While Co-Founders Susie Finley and Tom Finley believe maintaining regional density is important, they see opportunities to grow beyond the company’s current footprint.

“We don’t plan on dotting the map, and we’ve been geographically-focused our entire existence and we want to maintain those close connections and if we do expand, it’s done in a very intelligent manner,” Tom Finley said during an interview with SHN. “We’re going to focus this year on growth and refinement.”

Ascent Living has many options on the table, from new acquisitions to ground-up development should conditions on financing improve in the next 24 months, Tom Finley said. The operator is currently engaged in early planning for three potential development opportunities.

He added that he doesn’t want the operator to grow larger than around 20 communities in the future. The operator also sees opportunities supporting more middle-market senior living options, according to Tom Finley.

“We want to continue to innovate and improve operations being boutique in size but institutional in our execution,” Susie Finley told SHN.

Ascent Living has reported operating margins near 40%, thanks to strong occupancy rates across the company’s six communities.

In 2025, the company swapped out two important technology platforms central to operations. Specifically the company upgraded to a new payroll system and installed a fall-detection system in its assisted living and memory care communities to improve response times and care outcomes.

“We were waiting for fall detection software to evolve and we started seeing new entrants coming into the market and so we really felt like the industry had evolved enough to where it makes sense for us to include it,” Susie Finley said.

Ascent Living also recently overhauled its back-end data collection and analysis operating system to reveal insights into resident care and general community operating performance. Frontline teams have access to data from as recent as the day prior , which has allowed care staff to personalize care plans and adjust them on the fly.

This change has helped the bottom line, with the pivot to a data-forward operating model attributing to a 7% increase in operating margin, Tom Finley said.

“The data platform allows us to maximize every dollar,” Tom Finley added.

The shift to a data-driven operating system came after the company overhauled 12 of its previous operating systems to ensure data would flow directly into the company’s deepening “data lake,” mixed with a business intelligence platform. Reports on data are generated daily with the reports providing real-time information to better inform daily operations.

Also new this year, the company continues to expand its early dementia memory care program to three communities, with further rollout to all communities expected. In 2023, Ascent Living Communities hired former Alzheimer’s Association Senior Director Amelia Schafter as area director of memory care to develop and oversee the company’s memory care efforts.

“The program has elevated our ability to address really difficult needs in the market,” Susie Finley said of the company’s memory care program.

This comes as senior living operators face rising resident acuity in assisted living and memory care, which has complicated the operating environment and care delivery by providers.

Having taken on new development in the past, the company has been able to build specific independent living, assisted living and memory care environments to the company’s vision, but the communities rely on higher unit counts and curated life enrichment programming to encourage socialization across the continuum existing within a community’s four walls. For example, the company has a Friday happy hour where independent living residents and assisted living residents mingle.

“Having that flexibility is super important, where the care you get is happening behind the privacy of your closed door but you can still get the social benefits that we’re all entitled to,” Susie Finley said.

This blended environment, Tom Finley believes, helps shape buying decisions for certain residents, and positions Ascent Living Communities to capture future demand.

“If we have happy residents, NOI is going to follow,” Tom Finley added.

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