Many patients, whether due toage, injury or other medical condition, become unable to safely negotiate thestairway in their home. Not surprisingly, being unable to enjoy the full use oftheir homes can be an extremely jarring experience. Their condition has notonly robbed them of their mobility or strength, but it has also robbed them ofpart of their home.

Fortunately stairlifts can solvethat. Using a stairlift, a patient can continue living normally in his or homeenvironment, having full access to each floor of the household. There are awide variety of stairlifts available to fit nearly every type of stairway.

Moreover, the market forstairlifts is expanding as the country grows older. For instance, already BabyBoomers who care for older parents who have difficulty safely negotiating thestairs are naturally concerned about their parents falling down the stairs. Whyshould their parents be forced to sell and move into a one-story in a down realestate market when they can simply make their stairs safer with a stairlift?

Installing stairlifts can be afairly straightforward process in terms of actually spinning wrenches andturning screws, but an easy installation depends on careful up-frontpreparation and assessment. (As the saying goes, “measure twice, cut once.”)What do providers need to do in order to streamline stairlift installations?

Evaluate the home andstaircase

Every stairlift installation isunique. While there are various safety codes for ensuring that stairs are builtto standard specifications in order to ensure safety, every patient’s situationis going to be unique, so you need to go to the site and assess the situation.There are a multiplicity of considerations:

• Thedistance between the edge (or “nosing”) of the first step to the landing at thetop of the stairs and the angle of that measurement.
• Thewidth of the staircase to ensure the chair and rider will fit safely.
• Theside of the staircase that the railway and chair will follow.
• Theclosest power outlet at either the top or the bottom of the staircase
• Enoughroom at the bottom of the stairway to accommodate the tail-end of the rail onwhich the chair is usual parked. This could create an obstacle that could causesomeone to trip and fall, or simply obstruct movement around the bottom of thestairs.

Also, ask the patient if thereare other factors that might affect the installation, or that the stairliftinstallation should accommodate. A site visit also gives you an opportunity todo a spot assessment of the patient’s living situation and homecare situation.You might discover other home access or homecare needs that you can address.

Furthermore home evaluationsgive you a chance to build rapport with your patients and hopefully develop arelationship that ensures they see you as a key resource for their homecare andHME needs.

Curved stairways

Now all stairways are straight.Many homes — particularly older homes — have stairways that include turns andcurves that the stairlift must negotiate. There are stairlifts designed forcurved stairs, and the tightness of the curve will determine the unit. Some aredesigned for wider, sweeping curves, while others fit much tighter curves. Somechairs can even negotiate spiral staircases. In such cases it is critical forthe provider to undertake an extensive evaluation to determine degrees ofcurves and related variables.

Note that stairlifts that cannegotiate curved staircases are more expensive than units that run on straighttracks. This is because the curved stair installations are essentially customjobs. Manufacturing tracks that follow the curves of the stairs requires moreexpensive, hands-on manufacturing. Essentially, the unit that arrives at thepatient’s home is a one-of-a-kind solution.

Landings and L-shapedstaircases

Many staircases do not form asimple, straight line. In order to save space, many stairways are interruptedby a landing mid-way, and then double back on themselves before reaching thesecond floor. Or the stairs reach the landing and them form an “L” shape.Either instance presents its own challenges.

L-shaped stairs or similararrangements, will typically require a double installation. This means that tworails and two chairs, one for the bottom of the stairs to the landing, andanother from the landing to the top of the stairs. An alternative for L-shapedstairs and stairs that double back on themselves are pre-curved stairlifts thatwrap around the landing.

Cost

Ultimately, cost is usually thedeciding factor. In terms of expense, the most economical solution for aninstallation are straight stairlifts, and the most expensive stairlifts beingcurved units. For stairs with landings, pre-curved stairlifts are in facttypically more expensive than a double installation.

Points to take away:

• Variouspatient segments need stairlifts to ensure full use of their homes.
• Theneed for stairlifts is growing as the population gets older. Demand comes fromnot only older clients, but their adult children, as well.
• Theactual installation of stairlifts can go smoothly as long as the HME providerfirst conducts a careful and thoughtful home evaluation.
• Thereare stairlifts to accommodate curved stairways, but they are more expensive andrequire even more measurement and preparation.
• Stairwayswith landings require either double installations or pre-curved units thatfollow the stairs.