“Our Best Life approach comprehensively and holistically looks at who the person is and [asks] how do we really ensure each person is living his or her best life? It’s really about seeing the person,” Ms. Ryan explained.  “As it pertains to somebody living with dementia, how many times do we just focus on loss and decline and say they can’t do that anymore? We have labels and we see the label before we see the person. “I challenge you to see who that person is. We’re going to shift beliefs.”

"Founded in Rochester in 1997 by a group of forward thinkers, the Pioneer Network has since evolved through a partnership with The Green House Project (GHP) into the Center for Innovation. The new alliance focuses on supporting eldercare reform initiatives and educating and advising eldercare organizations that seek to initiate changes to the cultural, organizational, and physical structures of the traditional nursing home."

"There is an increasing urgency and growing expectation for change in Australia – driven by residents, customers, workers, and regulators alike – to move to a model of care where the priority is the older person’s preferences and staff skills are developed and nurtured. The Green House Project delivers this."

ACH Group will be the first aged care provider in Australia to implement the U.S.-founded Green House Project (GHP) model of care, which promotes the autonomy and individuality of residents and staff. Informed by person-directed care principles, GHP maximizes the independence of residents, empowers staff, and enhances the benefits of the highly regarded small household design that Healthia has adopted.

Small, household models of skilled nursing care are not new, but they have been largely overlooked until the COVID-19 pandemic, during which they fared far better than traditional nursing homes. At the same time, a growing body of research shows a multitude of quality advantages over traditional nursing homes.

Private rooms alone won’t remedy nursing home system’s shortcomings. “The Green House model is a lot more than just the building,” says Alex Spanko. “It’s about the culture, too.”

“The only question,” Cook said, “is whether they will take the harsh lessons of the pandemic to heart and implement empowering care models such as Green House — or choose to ignore the experiences of elders and decades of research and build the exact same types of traditional, outdated buildings that failed too many Canadians before, during and after COVID-19.”

"Analysts say the nursing-home model is outdated. Many nursing homes are 40 or 50 years old, looking much like hospitals: large, impersonal and with shared rooms. Research has shown that smaller nursing homes — like ones known as Green Houses — often provide better, more personal care."

“It’s important that we leverage what we learned … this could be a game changer, it could really provide that level of support and incentives to really help us achieve what we all want,” Susan Ryan, CEO for the Center for Innovation, told SNN.

The Center for Innovation, or CFI, the parent organization of the Green House Project and Pioneer Network, is reorganizing its leadership as it focuses on growth. Susan Ryan will serve as the Center for Innovation’s first CEO ... Ryan has led GHP as it grew to include more than 370 homes in 32 states."

"New HUD housing policy can align with and support calls for change in the nursing-home industry. Updating HUD’s existing public-private infrastructure with grants and loan terms targeted at specific innovations such as the small-home design, presents a logical place to originate much of the proposed reform that policy makers and consumers are advocating."

"Research demonstrated the relative advantage of Green House homes over traditional nursing homes. Technical assistance made the model less complex for potential adopters and less expensive because technical assistance staff worked with states to mitigate potentially costly regulatory hurdles and provide a process and model for the development of Green House homes."

"One way to attract and retain nursing home staff is to house them in nearby, affordable apartments, an idea used with success by at least several healthcare companies on the East Coast. The latest to create this employee benefit is Navigator Homes of New England. It is in development to bring Green House Project-inspired homes to 70 seniors with skilled nursing needs in Martha’s Vineyard."

“After years of gathering and studying data about their small-home model of long-term care, Green House leaders made a calculated move this week to give skilled nursing operators more reasons to adopt the innovative model.”

"The Green House model challenges caregivers to go beyond labels and always see the person behind them: the person who lived a full, rich life before requiring additional care and who deserves to keep living with that same richness amid the natural changes that come with aging."

"It’s not just an exercise in kindness. Independent research shows that the residents living in the U.S.-based Green House Project homes (small households) have deeper relationships with staff, fewer trips to the hospital emergency department and fewer pressure ulcers or urinary-tract infections — conditions that can be serious for older adults and costly to the health-care system."

“A lesson from the Green House movement and from other countries’ experience is that training and permitting nurses and other care staff to deliver a range of services improves quality and job satisfaction as well as patient satisfaction.”

That's why there's a growing call for smaller households, like the Green House model, that can be created within larger care homes but also in residential communities.

The Green House Project and Pioneer Network hope to draw on their decades of shared experience to improve the lives of people living in nursing homes, while also building a better eldercare infrastructure for future generations.

By coming together, we can create a consolidated source of knowledge and best practices based on experience gained through both organizations’ years of work on the ground

Communities that have adopted the universal worker model, espoused by the Green House Project, are seeing much higher levels of engagement than those with traditional workforce models.

Companies like Navigator Elder Homes of New England are teaming up with workforce housing developers to build apartment complexes for nursing home staff.

Removing financial barriers like access to capital and Medicaid underfunding would be a step toward nursing home innovation, Ryan said, like the shift to private rooms and the small home model.

“People vote with their feet,” Ponthie said, adding that traditional rural providers are facing unprecedented closures. “During COVID, we grew our census. Everyone else had huge declines. Drop the mic. We’re done. The demand is there.” 

Residents can continue to live in a Green House home as their care needs progress, without having to undergo transfers to different facilities, which can be more traumatic as people age. Deinstitutionalization is a core value.