Consider this. A room becomes vacant in your Care Home, but it needs a complete refurbishment before you can accept the next resident. You reach out to retailers to find out it will take weeks for suitable furniture and furnishings to arrive. The room lies empty and your lost income ends up running into the thousands.
Does this scenario sound familiar?
From what you’ve told us, it’s one that is regularly played out in Care Homes across the country. Given that the average weekly fee for residential Care Homes is between £623 and £726, it’s indisputable that lengthy room turnaround times create a big dent in income.(1) Unoccupied rooms are silently eating away at finances at the very time when you can least afford to turn a blind eye to squandered revenue.
Operational Scrutiny
In today’s increasingly complex and challenging market, we know Care Homes are facing growing pressure to reduce costs whilst maintaining a high quality of care. The speed at which rooms are refurbished or refreshed between occupants is a prime example of a common operational bottleneck. The process could, however, be radically streamlined in most cases, by making care specific furniture easy to order and available for express delivery. This would shorten the fit-out time, improving your homes efficiency.
Relieving the Capacity Crisis
Shortening room refurbishment times will also benefit the health and social care sector more generally. It’s been widely reported that a lack of available Care Home places impact hospitals by ‘turning wards into waiting rooms’.(2) The problem is particularly pronounced when it comes to dementia sufferers. Just this week a BBC report revealed that one in ten dementia admissions spent longer than 28 days in hospital. The Alzheimer’s Society’s Chief Executive Jeremy Hughes said people were falling through “the cracks of our broken care system.”(3) What’s more, predictions indicate that this situation will only get worse with the projected rise in demand for social care from the UK’s ageing population.(4) Although it’s only one part of the puzzle, if Care Homes can find ways to get rooms ready quickly and cost-effectively, without compromising care standards, the whole sector will benefit.
Overcoming Practical Hurdles
So why, historically, has it taken so long to have furniture delivered?
It comes down to a combination of supplier lead times and furniture quality. It can take an average of seven weeks for quality, care specific furniture to be delivered to a Care Home; an impractical timeframe for many Care Homes. The alternative has been to purchase “off-the-shelf” furniture which doesn’t cater to the specific needs of residents and rarely survives the heavy use of the care environment. Consequently, our Customer Services team here at Spearhead has seen a surge in requests for premium, personalised product packages with off-the-shelf delivery times.
Standardise but Stand Out
Having pioneered premium furniture packages over the last decade we understand the modern procurement needs of the sector. We also know, however, that the need for speed has led some retailers to rush into selling all-inclusive bedroom packages that have fallen short of expectations. We’ve had many operators come to us after they’ve been burnt by off-the-shelf solutions that turned out to be poor quality, detracting from the overall appeal of the room and proving uneconomical in the long run. In response to these problems, we have now launched our newly updated Furnishe range. This next generation of off-the-shelf solutions will help ensure you no longer have to choose between a long wait or a substandard quick fix.
The range includes a choice of bedroom, dining room and living room packages, with different finishes and upgrade options to suit every colour scheme and requirement. Whether you need a dining room table, or a full set of bedroom furniture with matching curtains, cushions and bed-runner, our flexible packages will provide the perfect solution. All are available for delivery in just seven working days.
Each piece of furniture has been carefully selected to meet the needs of the care environment whilst providing a high-quality finish. The designs include features such as rounded corners and large accessible handles, making them suitable for specialist healthcare needs, such as for residents living with dementia.
Although profitability is naturally a sensitive issue for care operators, financial practicalities do dictate the ability to deliver high quality care. With Care Homes under pressure to tighten up operations, Furnishe offers the perfect way to maximise revenue whilst maintaining high quality standards of care.
The Furnishe product range is now available and can be viewed here! Call us today on 0845 180 1800 for more information or to pre-order a copy of our new brochure.
