Economic impact of fall injuries on aged care operators

 

Across assisted living and skilled nursing, communities are paying roughly $380,000 per year in fall-related costs -equivalent to nearly 10 full-time frontline care staff salaries redirected from the labor budget into avoidable expense. (BusinessWire – senior living falls report)

 

On average, the direct cost per fall is approximately $4,743 in assisted living and $6,306 in skilled nursing facilities. Executives most frequently attribute these costs (about 8 in 10 citing each) to:

 

- Increased level of care

- Additional administrative overhead

- Increased care staff time and cost. (ECRI)

 

When move-outs occur after a fall, skilled nursing facilities typically lose around $250 in revenue per day per resident while the bed is empty or the resident is hospitalized. Many operators also give revenue back: about 8 in 10 assisted living executives report they provide some form of rent and/or care credit when a resident leaves the community temporarily due to a fall injury. Taken together, these drivers translate to an average cost per fall event of roughly $5,267 to the operator when all direct and indirect impacts are factored in.

 

Staffing, workload, and retention

 

Falls injuries don’t just consume budget; they consume capacity. Community clinical teams spend about one full workday each week on fall-related issues alone (investigations, documentation, care-plan changes, family communication, hospital transitions, etc.).

 

85% of senior living/aged care executives report that falls significantly impact staff turnover, and nearly half say staffing is a top operational challenge. The result is a vicious cycle:

 

High fall volume → more workload, stress, and burnout → higher turnover → thinner staffing → higher fall risk.

 

In some settings, 45% of residents are experiencing three or more falls per year, further amplifying workload and risk across the portfolio.

 

Occupancy, move-outs, and commercial performance

 

Approximately 1 in 7 senior living move-outs is related to a fall. When residents move out temporarily after a fall, operators face lost revenue plus the risk that the resident will not return to the same level of care or to the community at all. Falls are also a front-end sales issue:

 

- 6 out of 10 senior care executives say that reducing falls would give their community a clear competitive advantage, helping differentiate their offering and support move-ins.

- For many families, a fall is the trigger event that leads them to seek senior living in the first place.

- 2 out of 3 prospective residents and families now explicitly ask about fall-mitigation strategies when evaluating communities.

 

Strategic opportunity: Mann Anti-Fall Flooring

 

Against this backdrop, fall injury mitigation is not just a clinical initiative - it’s a margin, staffing, and growth strategy. Mann Anti-Fall Flooring is positioned to help operators reduce the severity of fall-related injuries, which in turn can:

 

- Lower per-fall costs and reduce the average ~$5k+ financial impact per incident.

- Protect staffing capacity and retention by decreasing the volume of high-stress fall events that drive burnout and turnover.

- Improve occupancy economics by reducing fall-related move-outs and shortening disruption periods when residents leave temporarily.

- Strengthen the community’s value proposition to families and referral sources by demonstrating a proactive, evidence-aligned stance on fall risk management.

 

In short, falls are eroding NOI through direct costs, staff churn, and lost revenue opportunities. Integrating Mann Anti-Fall Flooring into enables operators to treat fall injury reduction as a strategic lever for both quality of care and financial performance, rather than a reactive cost center.

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