Generally, a nursing home is a residential facility offering daily living assistance to individuals who are physically or mentally unable to live independently. Residents are provided rooms, meals, assistance with daily living, and in most cases, some medical treatment. The U.S. nursing homes and long-term care facilities industry includes about 80,000 establishments (single-location companies and branches of multi-location companies) with combined annual revenue of about $210 billion.
The severe shortage of nursing assistants, home health and home care aides, and other paraprofessional workers is the primary trend influencing the current wave of concern about the long-term care workforce. National data on turnover rates show wide variation, depending on the source of the data: One source suggests that turnover rates average about 45 percent for nursing homes and about 10 percent for home health programs, while other data place average annual nursing home turnover at over 100 percent per year. High rates of staff vacancies and turnover have negative effects on providers, consumers, and workers: The cost to providers of replacing workers is high; quality of care may suffer; and workers in understaffed environments may suffer higher rates of injury.
The future availability of front-line workers does not look promising. There will be an unprecedented increase in the size of the elderly population as the “baby boom” generation ages. This is why questions such as, nursing-home growth, will there be enough facilities to house the increasing elderly population, and the overall quality of care in these facilities, have been raised.
Future industry growth will be spurred by the 77 million Baby Boomers planning to retire over the next two decades. With life expectancy continuing to increase in the U.S., many individuals who retire at 65 will have to decide where to spend the remaining twenty or more years. This is expected to increase demand for assisted living services, and provides an exciting opportunity for entrepreneurs. Roughly one million Americans reside in senior care facilities. This number is expected to almost double by 2030. However, the current economic climate has caused the industry’s growth rate to dwindle. A drop in housing values across the country, coupled with losses in stock prices and 401(k) accounts, has caused millions of Americans who are nearing retirement to lose a substantial portion of their planned retirement income. Despite the slow growth, the ALF industry has withstood the economic downturn better than many other industries. This is largely due to the value which assisted living facilities provide to seniors and their children.
When it comes to sufficient facilities to house the aging population that is not the biggest problem. The main problem is employing enough qualified staff to aid in the care of the residents. With Medicaid and Medicare assisting in funding the living and care of individuals placement should be a minor factor. All things considered if the need ever was to arise that more nursing homes were needed to house the elderly it would be a great business venture for new and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Department of Health, New York State. About Nursing Home Quality. Retrieved from http://nursinghomes.nyhealth.gov/nursing_homes/about_quality Robyn I. Stone with Joshua M. Wiener. May 2001. The Urban Institute. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Who Will Care for Us? Addressing the Long-Term Care Workforce Crisis. Retrieved from http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/ltcwf.htm