At Premiere Healthcare, one of the services we offer for all our customers is a free seating assessment. It’s not something we have to do, it’s something we choose to do so that our customers get the right products to suit their business, budget and client-base. Here’s why we believe a seating assessment is so essential.

What is a specialist seating assessment?

When we talk about specialist seating assessments, we are really on a fact-finding mission, gathering information about you, your clients and your setting, so that we can work out the best seating options for you. After some initial questions, we prefer to come and visit your setting so we can see firsthand the environment where the medical chairs will be used. There is always something our trained seating specialists unearth during these sessions; often the smallest, overlooked details can make the biggest difference to the type of seating you actually need! For example, you may not have realised that the narrow corridors in your care home would only be suitable for a narrow framed chair, such as the CareFlex MultiAdjust Small.

Why do I need a seating assessment?

At Premiere Healthcare we pride ourselves on our comprehensive seating assessment procedure. It is the best way for all parties to achieve a successful outcome. It would be easy for us to just send a quote to whoever makes an initial enquiry but our business model is built on giving customers a better service. That means we take the time to ensure that whatever product we provide to our customers is the absolute best option for them. It is better for everyone in the long run.

What does a specialist seating assessment involve?

When we receive an enquiry about specialist seating, our customer champion will conduct a short survey before we arrange a site visit from our specialist seating assessors. This is to ascertain some basic information about the type of seating you are looking for, where it will be used and what your clients’ needs are. For example, it may be to help with poor posture, pressure relief or to help your client feel more independent. We ask questions at this stage to help narrow down the options. It may be that you tell us you want a Kirton chair but you don’t have any more knowledge than that. Well, we have a range of different Kirton chairs, so we will dig a bit further in our questioning to get a clearer picture of what you’re after. You can also find out more in our blog about Kirton chairs and seating solutions.

What are the benefits of a Premiere Healthcare seating assessment?

One of the benefits we have as a business is that we work with a number of premium specialist seating manufacturers. Having a range of products means we are not tied to a specific brand so we can offer our customers a truly unbiased approach. When we carry out our seating assessments, we load our vans with a number of specialist chairs and equipment that we think might be suitable following our initial call with the client. Having alternatives means we can be flexible in our approach while making sure our customers have exactly the right chair for their needs.

Do you do specialist seating assessments in person?

Once we have come up with a shortlist of seating options, we will arrange a site visit where we can see your setting and show you the chairs we think would be most suitable from what you have told us. These in-person assessments take about an hour to complete. Seeing the environment where the seating is to be used helps us to understand whether we are offering the right type of seating for our clients. Our seating assessors will look at a number of factors, such as the access to the setting, the level of training the staff at the setting have, the storage space available, and whether the chair might have multiple or single users. As a company we like to hold face-to-face sessions as, in our experience, we have found they give all parties the most long-term success.

How quickly can I get specialist seating delivered?

The answer is we can deliver specialist seating to you very quickly! From your initial enquiry, we can usually carry out a seating assessment within 48 hours. When we bring our chairs for you to try at your setting, depending on stock levels, we can sometimes leave your chosen chair with you. Otherwise we will put the order in that very day. If you decide to rent a chair rather than purchasing a chair, then the turnaround time can often be even quicker. We also have the advantage of being on the NHS pre-approved framework. We are trusted by NHS procurement teams and clinicians, so we can fast-track a specialist seating assessment for you through our NHS procurement channels.