Sage Launches Labor, Giving Senior Living Operators a Smarter Way to Align Staffing Decisions with Resident Acuity

Sage's all-in-one platform empowers senior living leaders with data-backed insights to ease caregiver burden and improve resident care

NEW YORK, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Sage, the first integrated Care Platform built for senior living and skilled nursing, today announced the launch of Labor, bringing acuity-based intelligence to one of the industry's most persistent challenges. Labor connects resident needs, staff schedules, and budget goals into one place, giving senior living leaders the clarity needed to staff optimally and improve resident outcomes while staying on budget and reducing burnout that drives turnover across the industry.

The senior living industry is facing an unprecedented staffing crisis compounded by rising resident acuity, which is driving burnout among frontline caregivers and leaving community leaders constantly recalibrating to meet changing needs. While labor represents over 50% of operating budgets, senior living communities lack the real-time visibility needed to prove how heavy their workloads actually are as resident needs fluctuate. Amid strict state mandates and chronic labor shortages, operators are forced to manage blindly, unable to see where care teams are stretched to their breaking points.

Labor was born out of exactly this problem. Sonida Senior Living came to Sage with a challenge familiar to every operator in the industry: managing labor budgets, while prioritizing care. Through this partnership, Sage worked with Sonida's teams to learn where the pain points were and used real-time care data from its platform to build a customized model that exceeded the original goal.

"Labor budget was the number everyone watched, but it was never really about the number, it was about whether our teams had what they needed to give residents the care they deserve," said Tabitha Obenour, Chief Clinical Officer of Sonida Senior Living. "Sage didn't just analyze our data, they spent time in our communities and learned exactly how our teams work. That's what made the difference. We set out to hold our labor budget flat and instead cut costs by $110 per resident per month, while giving our care teams more support than they've ever had. That's a result that changes what we think is possible."

The results from Sage's work with Sonida became the foundation for Labor, now available to every community Sage serves.

Labor integrates with Sage's unparalleled care workflow data to surface powerful insights tailored to each operator. It shows where caregiver deployment and resident acuity are out of sync, and exactly what to do about it. Key benefits include:

• Acuity-based staffing: Because the platform tracks care needs continuously, it instantly flags when resident needs outpace current staffing levels. This allows operators to align staffing with resident acuity as community requirements evolve — a gap that traditional scheduling or payroll tools cannot detect.
• Data-backed budget management: Sage Insight customizes its recommendations to match each enterprise's specific budget targets. Leaders can view target-versus-actual labor in real hours, giving them the data needed to adjust before budget overages compound.
• Performance insights to reduce turnover: Sage analyzes the full context of a caregiver's shift, giving leaders a clear view of how workload is actually distributed across a shift. This allows them to spot when caregivers are overburdened and rebalance in real time before it drives burnout and turnover.

"Solving the senior living staffing crisis requires aligning your workforce with actual resident acuity," said Ellen Johnston, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Sage. "Labor gives senior living leaders the visibility to match the right resources to the right resident at the exact moment they are required. With these insights, leaders can deploy caregivers where they are needed most, and get ahead of burnout."

The rollout of Labor comes on the heels of continued momentum for Sage, including the launch of Tasking, a solution that unifies planned and unplanned care into a single workflow. Sage has also crossed $100 million in total funding in 2026 from its Series C led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and a $35 million debt facility from Stifel. This investment accelerates Sage's mission to replace outdated infrastructure with a predictive, AI-powered platform that shifts the industry from response to prevention. You can find more information about Labor here.

About Sage

Sage is the industry's first fully integrated care intelligence platform for senior living and skilled nursing, built by founders who have watched family members navigate a broken care system firsthand. Sage replaces outdated infrastructure with modern software and AI-powered insights, so that aging is defined by dignity, visibility, and truly human care. Sage-powered communities have identified a $275 increase in NOI per resident per month, a 50% reduction in falls and faster response times compared to the industry. For more information, visit www.sagehealth.com.

SOURCE Sage