Discontinued Operations and Dispositions of Real Estate - Held for Sale (Details) $ in Thousands	Dec. 31, 2017 USD ($) property facility	Dec. 31, 2016 USD ($) property facility
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Assets held for sale, net	$ 417,014	$ 927,866
Accumulated depreciation and amortization	$ 2,741,695	$ 2,648,930
Senior housing triple-net
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Number of properties classified as held for sale \| property	64
Senior housing triple-net \| Held-for-sale
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Number of properties classified as held for sale \| facility	2	64
SHOP \| Held-for-sale
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Number of properties classified as held for sale	6	1
Senior Housing Triple-Net and SHOP \| Held-for-sale
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Assets held for sale, net	$ 417,000
Senior Housing Triple-Net and SHOP \| Held-for-sale \| Real estate
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Assets held for sale, net	393,000
Accumulated depreciation and amortization	$ 93,000
Life science \| Held-for-sale
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Number of properties classified as held for sale \| facility	4	4
SH NNN, Life Science, SHOP \| Held-for-sale
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Assets held for sale, net		$ 928,000
SH NNN, Life Science, SHOP \| Held-for-sale \| Real estate
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Assets held for sale, net		809,000
Accumulated depreciation and amortization		$ 193,000

The number of properties held for sale at the reporting date.

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- Definition

Amount classified as assets attributable to disposal group held for sale or disposed of.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 360
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (e)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=84176398&loc=d3e2941-110230

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 205
-SubTopic 20
-Section 45
-Paragraph 10
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=65878427&loc=d3e1107-107759

Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 205
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 5B
-Subparagraph (e)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=64827811&loc=SL51721673-107760

Reference 4: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 205
-SubTopic 20
-Section 45
-Paragraph 11
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=65878427&loc=SL51721533-107759

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

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- Definition

The cumulative amount of depreciation for real estate property held for investment purposes.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 944
-SubTopic 210
-Section S99
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (SX 210.7-03.1(3))
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6879938&loc=d3e572229-122910

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