WHERE THERE’S RARELY A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE: ASSISTED LIVING.

It’s an expensive, disruptive response to problems that often could be handled in the building, if health care professionals were more available to assess residents and provide treatment when needed.

But most assisted living facilities have no doctors on site or on call; only about half have nurses on staff or on call. Thus, many symptoms trigger a trip to an outside doctor or, in too many cases, an ambulance ride, perhaps followed by a hospital stay.

Twenty years after the initial boom in assisted living — which now houses more than 800,000 people — that approach may be shifting.

Sounds like it’s time.