Nursing care supply is not declining everywhere

Across the largest 31 metropolitan markets, the supply of operational nursing care beds has been declining an average of 0.3 percent annually during the past five years. This phenomenon is the result of both the closing of properties as well as a shift from semi-private to private rooms.

Properties that are renovating semi-private rooms into private rooms may not necessarily be decreasing their number of licensed beds. With the conversion to private rooms, however, the operational bed supply of those properties does decline.

While the supply across the largest 31 metropolitan markets has declined, there are exceptions at the metropolitan market level. In the past year, 10 of the largest 31 metropolitan markets had increases in the nursing care bed supply. The largest increase in supply during the past year was seen in Las Vegas, where the nursing care bed supply grew by 3.7 percent.

Houston, which saw a supply increase of 1.7 percent, was the only market other than Las Vegas that had supply increase by more than 1 percent.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are metropolitan markets that are seeing significant reductions in their nursing care bed inventory. Detroit and Seattle both saw their respective nursing care bed inventory decline by nearly 3 percent during the past year.

Graph courtesy of NIC MAP Data & Analysis Service