ACCOUNTING POLICIES - Schedule of VIEs (Details) - Variable Interest Entity, Primary Beneficiary, Aggregated Disclosure - USD ($) $ in Thousands	Sep. 30, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
NHP/PMB L.P.
Variable Interest Entity [Line Items]
Total Assets	$ 645,846	$ 645,109
Total Liabilities	202,200	203,235
Ventas Realty Capital Healthcare Trust Operating Partnership, L.P.
Variable Interest Entity [Line Items]
Total Assets	2,165,226	2,367,296
Total Liabilities	162,019	233,600
Other identified VIEs
Variable Interest Entity [Line Items]
Total Assets	1,886,133	1,582,430
Total Liabilities	381,933	431,582
Wexford tax credit VIEs
Variable Interest Entity [Line Items]
Total Assets	982,233	0
Total Liabilities	$ 223,723	$ 0

The carrying amount of the consolidated Variable Interest Entity's assets included in the reporting entity's statement of financial position.

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 810
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (bb)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=64801991&loc=d3e5710-111685

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- Definition

The carrying amount of the consolidated Variable Interest Entity's liabilities included in the reporting entity's statement of financial position.

+ References

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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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