My mom and dad’s doctor moved into a stunning new medical building about three years ago. It sits up on a hill, surrounded by woods. It has its own helicopter pad, a full-service emergency room and a chemotherapy wing, along with offices for dozens of physicians.
Yet — the wheelchairs provided in the lobby of the building don’t fit through the entrance doorways to the doctors’ offices.
How stunningly stupid is that? A medical facility — where almost half the parking places are designated for handicapped, oncology and expectant mothers — that doesn’t match its doorway widths to the wheelchairs it uses.
I should point out that all wheelchairs provided are super-sized, about 40 percent wider than standard.
The easiest fix, of course, is to provide some standard wheelchairs, too. But the proper fix is to widen the doorways for those who do depend on the larger chairs.
As it is, overburdened caregivers like myself (or worse — the elderly trying to care for their more fragile elderly loved ones) must lift their own wheelchairs in and out of their cars to visit a building of healthcare workers who should be attuned to the needs of their patients.
I don’t know what patients do who need the wider chairs. Do doctors examine them in the hallways? Sad.
It could be worse, of course. My parents’ longtime podiatrist put his office in an older home that sits on a slope off of a mostly residential street. No wheelchairs are provided. It’s a small building, so I understand why.
But the challenge here is gravity: Getting mom from inside the car, to a wheelchair and then into the office (and the reverse) is more of a battle. And if I forget the wheelchair brake or it slips, there could be disaster — a runaway wreck into a manicured flower bed between the small parking lot and the street.
I thought my parents’ gastro doctors got it right in their relatively new three-story complex. At the entry, there’s a large button to push which is supposed to open the doors so someone in a wheelchair can easily roll through.
That button hasn’t worked since my first visit with my parents — three years ago.
mom and dad move in 
I really love this blog! What you say is so true–the incredible stupidity of people designing things, people who, alas! have no experience with the requirements of such a place. I hope there’s a future in which they will have to use the facility. I have similar issues with places I take my husband, and it is just great to hear someone speak out about this!
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Thanks, Margaret. All of us caregivers need to speak out more — not only could our words bring necessary change…putting legit complaints out there helps let the steam out of so much stress, at least for me. Cheers!
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This is so true! I took care of my mother for nine years and repeatedly had accessibility issues in the general community as well as at medical offices. I don’t think anyone really “gets it” until they are the person responsible for transporting someone with mobility problems or they have mobility limitations themselves.
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Wow! Nine years is a long time. I’m on year three and it already feels like an eternal gap in life.
I know I didn’t “get it” until I was in it : (
Human nature, probably….but soon, so many of us are going to be in it, things might change.
Fingers crossed that they changed before we need it as care receivers!
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I too get so frustrated with the seemingly inane things I run across while taking my parents places. Or the ineptness of the hospital (in my mother’s recent stay it was like watching the Three Stooges sometimes, except there were a lot more than three…) While I’d never want to be a nurse myself (and I admire most), it angered me over the small items that seemed so simple to fix.
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The worst, for me, is the half-dozen doctors not talking to each other.
But the simple things! A smile costs nothing. It’s not all about money.
I know some people are overworked or just having a bad day.
But I often wonder if people are going into healthcare only for job security (over past 10 years)…and they are ill-suited for a job that requires so much empathy and compassion.
Have to say most of my issues (not exclusively) are with the youngest workers.
I don’t know if it’s because they can’t identify with all the problems the old face…or if our youth culture has so devalued our old that some of the young just don’t care.
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