More than Ramps: A Guide to Improving Health Care Quality and Access for People with Disabilities
Lisa I. Iezzoni and Bonnie L. O'Day
Abstract
Nearly 20% of Americans live today with some disability, and this number will grow as the “baby boomers” age. Despite this, the U.S. health care system is ill equipped to provide optimal, safe, and efficient care to this population. Significant barriers still block people with disabilities from receiving high quality health care. This book examines these barriers then proposes solutions to make health care accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities, focusing on adults who are blind, deaf, hard of hearing, or who have difficulties using their legs, arms, or hands. The book draws upon ... More
Nearly 20% of Americans live today with some disability, and this number will grow as the “baby boomers” age. Despite this, the U.S. health care system is ill equipped to provide optimal, safe, and efficient care to this population. Significant barriers still block people with disabilities from receiving high quality health care. This book examines these barriers then proposes solutions to make health care accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities, focusing on adults who are blind, deaf, hard of hearing, or who have difficulties using their legs, arms, or hands. The book draws upon stories told by persons with these conditions and reviews of national surveys, governmental policies, and current practices. Some barriers are obvious, such as examining tables that are too high. Other problems arise from faulty communication between patients and health care professionals, including misconceptions among clinicians about the daily lives, preferences, values, and abilities of patients with disabilities. Yet others relate to restrictive health insurance policies. Finding patient-centered solutions to these many impediments will take more than simply building ramps. The first part of the book examines broad social and health insurance policies affecting people with disabilities. The second part discusses current barriers to health care, while the third proposes ways to overcome these hurdles and improve care. Using universal design principles, these solutions recognize that creating safe and accessible health care for people with disabilities will benefit virtually everyone at some point in their lives.
Keywords:
disability,
health care,
health care quality,
health care access,
mobility impairments,
wheelchair,
patient-clinician communication,
barriers,
universal design
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2006 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195172768 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2009 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172768.001.0001 |