Texas attorney Richard Hunt posted about the next wave of ADA focus and litigation, medical providers and people with disabilities. While his expert analysis focused more on people with hearing impairments, it prompted my recent thought about people with physical impairments who use wheelchairs, or who are otherwise unable to stand or walk.
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires medical providers to provide accomodations to patients with disabilities. For people who are deaf, a doctor or dentist may be required to provide an interpreter (see Richard's post on Accessibility Defense via the link above). For a patient in a wheelchair, what accommodations might be needed?
If exam tables cannot be lowered to allow for transfer from a wheelchair to a table, staff might be required to lift the patient up to the exam table. If the table can be lowered but the patient is unable to transfer, lifting might still be necessary.
One obvious issue becomes the safety of staff required to lift a patient. Another issue is tort liability--what if staff dropped the patient and caused an injury? What if a doctor's staff consisted only of a nurse and receptionist--would "undue hardship" be a viable defense? Would an adjustible exam table, or overhead lift, be cost prohibitive?
Requiring staff to lift or move a person with a mobility disability presents numerous concerns of safety and liability. Yet, people with mobility impairments routinely lack good health care due to limitations of getting onto an exam table, into an x-ray or MRI machine, or into a dentist's chair. It will be interesting to see how litigation affects these conflicting issues.
