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Senior living's clinical model has been evolving alongside rising resident acuity — and the 2025 State of Clinical Leadership Survey, conducted by August Health in partnership with ASHA, gave the industry a clearer look at where things stand.
On January 29, August Health co-founder Justin Schram, MD, moderated a fireside chat with three clinical leaders to dig into the findings: Lynn Chalk, VP of Clinical Services at MBK Senior Living; Sara Padilla, VP of Health Services at SRG Senior Living; and Liz Jensen, PhD, RN-BC, Clinical Director at Direct Supply's Innovation and Technology Center.
The conversation covered a lot of ground. The survey found that 74% of respondents are seeing acuity continue to rise, yet 63% believe that acuity is still being under-documented — a gap with real downstream consequences for staffing, revenue, and care planning. The panelists discussed what's contributing to that gap and what clinical teams are doing about it, including how organizations are restructuring care level conversations, adding nursing coverage, and building value-based care partnerships.
Technology was another major thread. The panelists were candid about both the potential and the risk. As Sara put it: "If we have it and we don't act on it, that's a bigger risk than not having it at all." That framing guided much of the discussion around AI, predictive analytics, and how to present data in ways that actually drive decisions on the floor.
Watch the full recording above.
