As professionals in the senior living field, we all know that falls cost us, but how to quantify that cost has always been a challenge. We know there is a cost to seniors, not only physically, but mentally. As a matter of fact, fear of falls may be responsible for many older adults curtailing activities that they may have previously enjoyed. This fear of falls becomes self-perpetuating as a sedentary lifestyle leads to muscle, balance and flexibility loss, in turn, leading to increase in fall rates. 

A recent report from Safely You, The State of Falls 2022 Inaugural Report, provides one of the first ever reports to clearly define the cost of falls to Senior Living Communities. This report by Safely You surveyed over 400 executives and care providers across senior care, as well as over 1,000 American adults aged 42 and older. They assessed approaches to fall management as well as the impact of falls to senior living communities - including how fall affect safety, staffing, costs, occupancy and liability. 

An often cited Cost of Falls number by the CDC is $50 billion dollars per year - this is the combined cost of Medicare, Medicaid and out-of-pocket payers. But this number does not include the costs to senior care providers. According to the State of Falls report, assisted living and skilled nursing communities are paying $380,000 per year in falls costs. That is the equivalent of nearly 10 full time front-line care staff salaries! In addition to funneling dollars away from the labor budget, 85% of community executives reported that falls significantly impact staff turnover. When your staff is challenged with managing falls, the job is harder and you lose staff. Being understaffed, in turn, leads to more falls. It’s a very difficult cycle to break!

On average, executives reported that the total cost for each individual fall within their community costs approximately $4,743 for assisted living and $6,306 for skilled nursing. This works out to an approximate average Cost of Falls to the operator of $5,267 per incident. The most common factors that went into this calculation were: increased levels of care, additional administrative costs and increased care staff costs.

We highly encourage you to request a copy of this comprehensive falls report yourself. Live 2 B Healthy® has put together a Cost of Falls infographic detailing points of the report.

We were encouraged when we read the report that what we are doing for seniors in our programs is making a huge difference in our communities! According to our internal Falls Reduction Studies, Live 2 B Healthy® decreases the incidence of falls by 47% among assisted living residents who regularly participate in our program. If your assisted living community experience 10 falls in 2022, with an average cost of $4,743 per fall, then falls cost your community $47,430 last year. By instituting a Live 2 B Healthy® program in your community in 2023, you could reduce the number of falls in your community by 47%. This would reduce the amount of money that your community spends on falls related expenses by $22,292 in 2023.  Please contact your local Live 2 B Healthy® Regional Owner to talk about how much money we could save your community in 2023!