These Doctors Admit They Don't Want Patients with Disabilities
By Gina Kolata
A study published in Health Affairs involved video focus groups of U.S. primary care physicians and specialists to determine why patients with disabilities often complain about substandard care. Given anonymity as part of the study, the participating doctors spoke frankly about the challenges of serving patients with disabilities. They cited several reasons, including the inability of office scales to accommodate wheelchairs, the amount of time it takes to see disabled patients, and the high costs of sign language interpreters and other accommodations. Dr. Tara Lagu, professor of medicine and medical social science at Northwestern University and one of the study's authors, supports a proposal by the National Council on Disability that would include disability in the data collected by health care systems about their patients, helping track disparities in treatment and outcomes. Lagu also said it is important for doctors to know beforehand that they are seeing a patient with a disability, noting that a patient may explain that over the phone but the message is not given to the provider. Dr. Lisa Iezzoni, a professor of medicine at Harvard and one of the study's authors, emphasized the importance of accessibility, like adjustable exam tables, scales that can accommodate everyone, and communication accommodations for people with impaired hearing, vision, or speech.
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