Too busy to keep up with the latest news? Take a look at three recent items on how to control dining costs by adopting practices restaurants have long used, what older adults entering assisted living communities expect regarding wireless internet connectivity, and the results of a poll on healthy aging showing that those who are lonely rate their health poorer. 

Culinary Leaders Advise Providers on Ways to Control Dining Costs

Senior Housing News (3/12, Regan) reports Dished, a Senior Housing News event held in Chicago, drew comments from culinary leaders who discussed new ways for senior living providers “to optimize dining from a cost perspective” by adopting practices from restaurants, such as “track[ing] food spending at each step, from ordering and inventory to when the food is served to residents.” One leader advised that providers “standardize their dining budgets” by “tracking food costs per resident day (PRD),” while another advocated for tracking food waste. 

WiFi Connectivity Increasingly Important to Prospective Residents, Survey Finds

Senior Housing News (3/12, Sudo) reports a survey conducted by Xfinity Communities in October found that older adults entering independent living and assisted living communities expect wireless internet connectivity to “be part of a facility’s basic offerings,” and that “the quality of a community’s wifi network” significantly impacts whether prospective residents select one facility over another. The survey of “791 multi-dwelling unit residents…found technology ranked as the third-most important factor, behind location and price,” but that among respondents age 65 and older, “50% said technology was the most important factor when considering moving into multifamily communities.” 

National Poll on Healthy Aging Finds One in Three Seniors Lonely

TIME (3/4, Ducharme) reports on the most recent National Poll on Healthy Aging, which found that nearly a third of senior citizens are lonely. The report found that of the seniors who identified as socially isolated, “28% reported fair or poor physical health, compared to 13% of those who did not feel isolated,” while “17% of people who called themselves socially isolated rated their mental health as fair or poor, compared to just 2%” of those who didn’t. The authors of the report write that chronic loneliness “can impact older adults’ memory, physical well-being, mental health, and life expectancy.”