McKnight's Podcast

Financial distress in senior care rarely happens overnight. Subtle breakdowns in cash conversion, labor alignment, and sales momentum often appear long before a census decline makes the crisis visible. Yet, many owners and lenders remain focused on occupancy rather than the execution metrics that actually drive it. In the latest episode of the McKnight’s Market Leaders podcast, Executive Editor Jim Berklan sits down with experts from Everest Management Solutions to discuss "operational drift" — a quiet threat that can devastate a facility if left unchecked. Joining the conversation are Elizabeth Thornton, chief operating officer, and Tiffany Flynn, vice president for senior living sales and operations. Together, they pull back the layers on why a stable census can sometimes mask deep-seated structural issues. The discussion highlights three critical areas for operators to monitor: -Quality over quantity: A high census is meaningless if it consists of "bad" revenue, such as unoptimized rates or significant collection issues. -The churn trap: In senior living, net move-ins and length of stay are more predictive than raw occupancy, which often hides a high-turnover "revolving door" of residents. -Leadership and systems: Stabilization is only realistic if leadership is held accountable and provided with the systemic tools — not just cost-cutting mandates — to succeed. As the experts note, waiting for a formal survey deficiency or a financial crash is often waiting too long. Success requires a holistic, interdisciplinary look at daily operations to ensure quality outcomes match the revenue goals. "Operational drift doesn't announce itself. It shows up quietly," Flynn warns. "It shows up in the metrics. It shows up in the way the staff is responding ... It’s not like a big red flag goes up that says it’s time to get help." Listen to the full podcast episode to learn how to build a practical framework for stabilizing performance and protecting your asset value before the drift becomes a downfall. Note: This recap was assisted by Gemini, which used artificial intelligence to help capture key points. It has been reviewed by an editor for accuracy.

Faris Flournoy, CEO of Flournoy Health Systems, an Atlanta, GA-based home care agency that serves over 2,700 individuals in Georgia and Indiana, sees an untapped opportunity in serving hospital-at-home patients who are Medicaid beneficiaries. Through data and technology, he is focused on making the case to hospitals that home care is a reliable hospital-at-home partner to produce better outcomes and save money, Flournoy told McKnight’s Home Care in a Newsmakers podcast.

In this episode, McKnight’s Senior Living Editor Lois Bowers sits down with Amy Schectman, outgoing CEO of 2Life Communities, and Lizbeth Heyer, the current president who will succeed her as CEO. They discuss Schectman’s 15-year tenure and upcoming retirement with the organization, the shared leadership model Schectman and Heyer have used for the past two years, advice on succession planning and leadership in senior living, and the evolving landscape of affordable and middle-market senior living.

CEO Lynne Giacobbe, who is retiring this month after nearly 23 years at Kendal at Home, has helped to develop the model of in-home care known as “CCRC with no walls.” Kendal at Home, which has a payment structure similar to a continuing care retirement community with an entry fee and monthly fee, allows older adults to age in place with the help of care coordinators and needed services. Since senior living program Kendal launched the program in 2023, Kendal at Home now serves about 450 members in the states of Ohio, Massachusetts and Kentucky. One point of pride: few members have been placed in nursing homes or been rehospitalized, Giacobbe told McKnight’s Home Care in a Newsmakers podcast.

In the latest installment of the “Reimagining Senior Living and Long-Term Care” series, MatrixCare experts urge providers to start treating their data as the strategic enterprise asset that it is. As margins tighten and staffing models face unprecedented strain, resilient organizations must shift from simple data collection to support true "data enablement," where information actively informs real-time decision-making rather than serving as a retrospective report. Hosted by McKnight’s Executive Editor Jim Berklan, the conversation with MatrixCare’s Paul Minton, head of product, and Daniel Zhu, vice president of product management, identifies three primary pillars for a modern data strategy: -Breaking down silos: Why clinical, financial, and operational data must be integrated to provide a unified view of performance. -Speed to insight: Using accessibility and usability as benchmarks to determine how quickly leadership can pivot based on incoming metrics. -AI and predictive readiness: Ensuring data is clean and organized today so that advanced technologies can be leveraged effectively tomorrow. The shift toward value-based care has made this integration a necessity rather than a luxury. "The organizations that really view data as core to their operating model, not just a technical capability, are the ones that position themselves for long-term resilience," says Minton, who outlines six critical questions every leader should ask to assess their own data readiness. The question he asks “all the time” about professional and personal technology decisions? “Am I gonna be the Blockbuster of entertainment or I'm gonna be the Netflix of entertainment? Which one am I gonna do? … Am I making the right decision? That’s how I gauge it.” Listen to the full episode to learn Minton’s five other questions and how they can prompt providers to modernize their data approaches. Note: This recap was assisted by Gemini, which used artificial intelligence to help capture key points. It has been reviewed by an editor for accuracy.