Private Equity Expansion in Assisted Living: Implications for Dementia Care

The goals of this project are to understand how changes in ownership through sales may impact assisted living operations, and to identify any consequential effect on residents’ health and well-being. The study will have a specific focus on the role of private equity firms’ investment in assisted living. In this project, we aim to:

• Understand the goals, methods, and decisions associated with private equity investments in assisted living, including how private equity acquisition or divestiture of an assisted living community may impact the care of residents living with dementia.
• Document the characteristics of assisted living communities that were acquired or divested by private equity firms, and compare them to those that were not.
• Understand how private equity acquisition and divestiture of assisted living communities impact residents’ outcomes (e.g., end of life care) and the types of residents served (e.g., people living with dementia).

Our goal is to identify acquisition strategies that better align owner, operator, staff, family, and resident expectations in an effort to improve residents’ well-being and experience of care. This study is funded by the National Institute on Aging [R01 AG079868-01A1] in partnership between researchers at Brown University, Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, Miami University, and Portland State University.