Segment Disclosures (Details) (USD $) In Thousands, unless otherwise specified	3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2011	Sep. 30, 2010	Sep. 30, 2011 segment Property	Sep. 30, 2010
Segment reporting information, revenues
Number of reportable segments			5
Rental Revenues	$ 290,105	$ 266,282	$ 853,726	$ 764,749
Income From DFLs	153,496	13,028	310,553	37,238
Interest Income	577	36,582	99,199	108,004
Investment Management Fee	494	1,157	1,605	3,755
Total revenues	444,672	317,049	1,265,083	913,746
NOI	385,929	218,884	1,013,140	650,058
Senior housing
Segment reporting information, revenues
Rental Revenues	107,465	88,151	307,023	235,566
Income From DFLs	30,652	13,028	73,671	37,238
Interest Income	42	67	49	352
Investment Management Fee		577	70	1,965
Total revenues	138,159	101,823	380,813	275,121
NOI	128,494	87,855	369,306	257,794
Post-acute/skilled
Segment reporting information, revenues
Rental Revenues	9,548	9,274	28,495	27,843
Income From DFLs	122,844		236,882
Interest Income	287	28,750	98,167	84,636
Total revenues	132,679	38,024	363,544	112,479
NOI	132,147	9,197	265,058	27,667
Life science
Segment reporting information, revenues
Rental Revenues	71,093	69,660	215,045	206,641
Investment Management Fee	1	1	3	3
Total revenues	71,094	69,661	215,048	206,644
NOI	57,862	56,953	176,386	170,596
Medical office
Segment reporting information, revenues
Rental Revenues	81,145	78,074	241,045	231,967
Investment Management Fee	493	579	1,532	1,787
Total revenues	81,638	78,653	242,577	233,754
NOI	47,799	44,775	143,688	135,074
Hospital
Segment reporting information, revenues
Rental Revenues	20,854	21,123	62,118	62,732
Interest Income	248	7,765	983	23,016
Total revenues	21,102	28,888	63,101	85,748
NOI	$ 19,627	$ 20,104	$ 58,702	$ 58,927

Net Operating Income from Continuing Operations ("NOI") is a non-GAAP supplemental financial measure used to evaluate the operating performance of real estate. The Company defines NOI as rental revenues, including tenant recoveries and income from direct financing leases, less property-level operating expenses. NOI excludes investment management fee income, depreciation and amortization, general and administrative expenses, interest and other income, net, interest expense, income taxes, equity income from unconsolidated joint ventures and discontinued operations. The Company believes NOI provides investors relevant and useful information because it measures the operating performance of the Company's real estate at the property level on an unleveraged basis. The Company uses NOI to make decisions about resource allocations and assess property-level performance. The Company believes that net income is the most directly comparable GAAP measure to NOI. NOI should not be viewed as an alternative measure of operating performance to net income as defined by GAAP since it does not reflect the aforementioned excluded items. Further, the Company's definition of NOI may not be comparable to the definition used by other real estate investment trusts, as those companies may use different methodologies for calculating NOI.

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Interest generated from day to day operating activities of the business. This element represents a revenue generating activity and is therefore gross (before any related cost of revenue items).

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef

-Publisher FASB

-Name Accounting Standards Codification

-Topic 225

-SubTopic 10

-Section S99

-Paragraph 2

-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-03.1(e))

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-Publisher FASB

-Name Accounting Standards Codification

-Topic 225

-SubTopic 10

-Section S99

-Paragraph 2

-Subparagraph (SX 210.5-03.1(d))

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Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef

-Publisher SEC

-Name Regulation S-X (SX)

-Number 210

-Article 5

-Section 03

-Paragraph 1

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef

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