What to Look for When Buying Handicap Lifts for your Healthcare Facility
Otherwise known as wheelchair lifts, or stairlifts, handicap lifts are a crucial addition to any healthcare facility. They ensure that you can move patients quickly and easily from one floor to another in your property so that they have the freedom to move around at their will. With a handicap lift, it’s easy to give your residents free roam of your entire facility, without forcing them to take risks if they have unstable legs or mobility issues.
Handicap lifts, like many of the other tools designed to support the care of elderly and disabled individuals, come in a range of different styles today. If you’re looking to invest in your own lifting option, make sure that you keep the following things in mind.
Know What Kind of Lift you Need
Before you start looking for a handicap lift, it’s essential to establish what you need from your new device. For instance, platform lifts are the lifts that transport entire wheelchairs and the individuals within them between floors, giving patients comfort and safety wherever they go. These are some of the most common handicap lifts on the market, but they’re not the only option.
You might also consider a step lift. These are usually available when a handicap accessible ramp might not be suitable in your facility due to a lack of space or the absence of the right stair gradient. These lifts carry chairs over short vertical distances.
If you need something much larger and more significant for your facility, then you may also look into a home lift or an elevator. These take up more room in your property, but they also allow for the transport of multiple people at once.
Considering Space and Comfort when buying a handicap lift
There are usually two main factors that you’ll need to think about when choosing the handicap lift that’s right for your facility. First, you’ll need to consider how much space you have in your property to allow for new equipment. There are plenty of facilities out there that don’t have enough space to make a platform or elevator lifts an option.
Once you know how much space you have to deal with, you can consider which lift choice will give your patients or residents the most comfort when they’re moving from one location to another. Other points to think about include:
- The capacity or strength of the lift: How much weight can it move at once?
- The safety features of the lift: Are there any emergency stop buttons or other safety precautions implemented into the design?
- The performance capabilities of the lift: How quickly and smoothly can it move, could you rely on it in an emergency?
- The noise of the lift: A noisy lift can be very daunting for patients who don’t like the screech of metal when they’re moving between floors.
Wheelchair lifts are a vital tool in a healthcare environment, capable of improving the quality of life of your patients or residents. However, it’s not always easy to choose the right option. If you need extra help picking the perfect handicap lift, contact HLS Healthcare today and speak to one of our dedicated professionals.