How Arrow Senior Living Is ‘future-proofing’ Operations For Industry’s Incoming Customers

Arrow Senior Living’s path ahead in 2025 is all about “optimization and transformation,” according to CEO Stephanie Harris.

“We’re really excited about the growth opportunities of leveraging each individual community and taking it to the next level for us,” Harris told Senior Housing News.

The St. Charles, Missouri-based provider has multiple projects in its development pipeline, having recently opened seven, new-build communities.

With the O’Reilly Development Company, Arrow has completed 16 communities in the past. The companies recently announced plans for a new, 164-unit independent living, assisted living and memory care community in Kansas City, Missouri.

Currently, Arrow Senior Living manages 44 communities in seven Midwestern states.

Arrow divided roles within its leadership teams, aiming to bring new ideas forward to improve operations at the community level.

“It’s pretty important to improve how we work, and that’s going to be important to future-proofing the product that we’re offering residents,” Harris said.

Arrow also is using technology to give more time back to caregivers. For example, a wellness analyst on the “vision team” found a way to save 15 hours of caregiver time per month thanks to an integrated assessment process. This created a “faster communication loop” and improved care coordination efforts, Harris added.

Improved care coordination has also improved the company’s average length of stay increased by an additional four months in 2024, Harris said, in assisted living and memory care as providers look to tackle more difficult high-acuity operations and improve resident health outcomes.

“We have an opportunity to mitigate acuity with better practices,” Harris said.

While it’s important to serve residents at high acuity, Harris said the industry may be too reliant on needs-driven move-ins to realize occupancy gains, noting that the industry is “not patient enough” in its marketing approach to older adults today.

“We rely upon crisis driving that decision that creates length of stay challenges and frankly gives us less than desirable outcomes because we’re managing complex care,” Harris said.

In 2024, Arrow took on management of six independent living communities on behalf of real estate investment trust (REIT) Welltower (NYSE: WELL). In the partnership with Welltower, Harris said the transition to enter established communities was a “slight readjustment” to deploy operations at a new community rather than opening a new-build development.

This year, Harris said her corporate leadership team is working to create a new way for frontline caregivers to navigate their daily assignments more efficiently. To get there, Arrow hosted its latest “hackathon” technology-event, from which the company’s The Archer staffing app.

“We’re shifting from a schedule-focused tool for our operations to a solution for where they can tap into any system without a process to the platform,” Harris said. “We now have a better managed process.”

Using The Archer, employees can communicate, swap schedules, compare care information with integration to the company’s emergency health record (EHR) platform. With the growing operating system and its integration, Harris sees a chance to focus on building culture and connection, Harris said, as Arrow continues to scale.

Arrow also is focused on improving employee retention, Harris said. The company is focusing on getting new employees to their first and second anniversaries, having made strides in solving short-term turnover after 30-days after starting. To get there, Arrow launched a “large scale” bonus program for employees and caregivers to help improve retention of staff at the community level.

“We are 100% trying to zero in on our employees and what is going to create a better service for our residents,” Harris said.

The post How Arrow Senior Living Is ‘Future-Proofing’ Operations for Industry’s Incoming Customers appeared first on Senior Housing News.