ORANGE COUNTY, CA—A movement away from clinical-looking settings toward high-end hotel-like settings is where senior healthcare is going, experts tell GlobeSt.com. In an update to our previous interviews about how senior housing is changing, we spoke with Stephen Jones, chairman and CEO of Snyder Langston; Brendan Morrow, director of senior living for the Weitz Co.; and Alan Ursillo, SVP with Jones Lang LaSalle, about how they see the sector changing in the near future and how healthcare connects with the residential element of senior living.

GlobeSt.com: How do you see senior housing changing over the next several years?

Morrow: I see the industry evolving from the large sites on the outskirts of town to more of an urban setting. The next generation coming in will want walkability to arts, entertainment and social life outside the walls of their senior-living property. Whereas today the facilities are keeping you on property, I predict land for these types of projects will be scarcer and that vertically massed facilities will be a trend. I also think the demands on technology will continue to grow, especially as it relates to telemedicine and monitoring of one's health—something very important to newer generations of seniors.

Ursillo: Senior housing is changing as the Baby Boomers start to come on line. We are seeing a significant increase in development activity across the US. The design of the communities is changing as well. New developments are attempting to capture the active lifestyle of the new seniors coming online from the Baby-Boomer generation. We have a supply-and-demand issue that needs to be addressed industrywide. We are approximately 90% occupied industrywide across the US, and the demand in the next five to 10 years swill increase dramatically. High-income demographic areas and high barrier-to-entry locations seem to be a common theme of senior-housing developers and operators. They have hopefully learned their lessons from the 1990s when our industry was overbuilt.

GlobeSt.com: How does the healthcare element connect with the residential element in senior living?

Jones: Assisted living—which is a component of CCRC, skilled nursing, rehab and Alzheimer's/memory care—has a healthcare component. An individual's ability to perform activities of daily living will dictate the level of skilled nursing they may need. In terms of how healthcare connects with the residential element, it depends on each individual's needs and financial means.

Some providers are also providing an unbelievable level of service—almost like resort living. If you have the resources, you can get every manner of care. It's driven in many cases by the resident's children, who will pay to have their parents close to them and in a better location. If the communities can demonstrate value, then often people will pay for it. Relying on the amount of money you are reimbursed by Medicare—which is how many models work—may not be the answer. Many providers are looking to make a difference. Take an issue such as memory care. The goal is to stabilize and reverse the impact of memory loss for the resident. And if you can provide the additional services, such as animal therapy, that make a difference, families will pay more so that their loved ones get better outcomes.

Morrow: There is a significant movement within the high-acuity environments to strip away the physical reminders of the health needs. We are seeing a move toward healthcare buildings that look like mid- to high-level hotels. Just because you are stuck rehabbing a hip or from a heart issue doesn't mean you want to feel like you are in a healthcare setting. Food quality is improving, and room service is becoming the norm. There is also a focus on visitor comfort for when family is there—Wi-Fi, coffee bars, etc.