Clinical Expertise

Silverado Senior Living's communities hold a unique place in the assisted living industry. Only six percent of assisted livings are licensed as freestanding dementia care communities. Currently Silverado Senior Living has 20 dementia-specific assisted living communities caring for over 1,200 residents.

Generally, Silverado cares for a very frail and elderly population. The average age of residents living at Silverado is 83 years old and less than four percent of Silverado residents are independent in their care needs. Providing care for those with dementia is a specialty, requiring a multidisciplinary team trained and focused together to offer the social stimulation and clinical assessment that supports our residents to be as independent as possible for as long as possible.

Silverado's Clinical Presence

Silverado’s model of care is to give LIFE to our residents. As part of insuring that residents receive quality care, Silverado has a full complement of clinicians, including a physician as Medical Director, an R.N. as the Director of Health Services and licensed nurses on-site 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Most assisted livings have little if any clinical involvement. In addition, Silverado is affiliated with many outstanding universities and teaching programs, such as: University of California San Diego (UCSD) and Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Southern California (USC), and Baylor University College of Medicine in Texas.

Silverado's dementia-specific communities have a Registered Nurse as full-time director and licensed nurses on-site on all shifts every day. Unlike most other assisted living communities, the clinical team is involved with every resident throughout each day for assessing their health needs and communicating with physicians, therapists and family members.

The differences in nursing involvement at Silverado compared to other assisted living communities are illustrated in the chart below (SSL = Silverado Senior Living):

Another difference between Silverado's clinical model and the model of most other assisted livings is that at Silverado, only licensed nurses administer medications to residents. At most other assisted livings, as well as at some skilled nursing facilities, medications are administered by medication aides. Because only licensed nurses administer medications at Silverado, every resident is assessed daily by a nurse and possible adverse effects of unnecessary medications (polypharmacy) are minimized.

Silverado's clinical model allows dementia residents to age in place and avoid the trauma of having to relocate to a hospital or nursing home as they physically decline. In traditional assisted living, the most common cause for a resident to leave is for health reasons. However, due to Silverado's clinical model of care, it is rare that a resident would have to leave as a result of health conditions.