MINNEAPOLIS and BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Lifesprk, a Minneapolis-based community-based services provider, has announced plans to acquire Tealwood Senior Living, a Bloomington-based operator with 35 seniors housing communities.
“The current senior housing market, accelerated by the pandemic, created significant opportunity to provide a markedly different approach to senior living,” says Joel Theisen, Lifesprk CEO. “Both Lifesprk and Tealwood are well-positioned to seize that opportunity by joining forces to serve seniors more fully, connecting them to everything they need in one system to age magnificently and transform the way people experience senior living right now.”
“For years, we’ve been excited about the opportunities for innovation with predictive medicine and integrating value-based models,” says Howie Groff, president of Tealwood Senior Living. “The timing was right to build off our strong foundation and bridge the technology — artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning — with community-based services to drive highly customized, client-centered experiences within senior housing.”
According to data from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) and Minnesota State Demographer, there has been a 6.8 percent drop in senior housing occupancy over the past 10 years, which began long before the pandemic, and an anticipated 46 percent drop in labor needed to support a growing aging population.
“Instead of addressing myopic, acute needs, we can partner to broaden our capabilities bringing the clinic to them including acute care at home and integrating holistic approaches in a way that’s never been done before,” says Theisen. “Together, we are combining reimbursement opportunities that create better life experiences with a focus on home, housing, and wellness, not one or the other.”
Bill Thomas, internationally renowned geriatrician and Lifesprk’s independence officer, is a key architect in designing the new model that will deliver this new experience under the Lifesprk Senior Living banner. Thomas is also the founder of The Green House Project and Eden Alternative, with efforts respectively focused on partnering with senior living providers to create person-directed, relationship-rich living environments and shifting the care paradigm towards a more collaborative partnership.
“All the arrows are pointing to home and community as the locus for innovation. If you don’t pay attention to this you will end up a low-occupancy and lower-outcome environment,” says Thomas. “The high level of health and medical services needed during COVID will not disappear, but it won’t, nor should it, go back to the way it was.”
Integration plans for the 35 Tealwood properties, located across Minnesota and Wisconsin, to Lifesprk Senior Living are underway. Lifesprk is also working on plans for new senior living contracts and properties.