Why Do You Need A Wheelchair Scale

As a handicapped person, getting a proper body weight for medications, adaptive devices, and other health concerns has always been a challenge. Imagine the humiliation of being taken to a hospital laundry room to be weighed on the laundry scale. For whatever reason, laundry is weighed on a scale large enough to accommodate approximately a dozen people. What should be a simple procedure becomes a major production because regular scales require a person to stand. No more! Understanding the necessity of obtaining an accurate weight, manufactures have now devised wheelchair scales for medical offices and home use.

Wheelchair-bound patients greatly appreciate the doctor’s office equipped with a wheelchair scale. The medical scale has two options: Standing with assistance and remaining in the chair. Although a wheelchair is required for transportation, many elderly, and people disabled by birth defects or disease, patients can stand briefly, if they can hold onto a handgrip or rail. Most wheelchair scales have a waist-high rail.

For the patient remaining in the chair, a small ramp is used to position the patient on the scale. Once situated, a patient is weighed normally. Then, the nurse or doctor simply subtracts the weight of the wheelchair from the total. With an accurate weight, the doctor can correctly prescribe medications or healthy diets.

Generally, a person in a wheelchair can only determine weight loss/gain by how clothes fit. Especially when trying to lose a few pounds, no being able to determine the level or success/failure can be discouraging. Understandably, eating a healthy diet and avoiding unnecessary weight gain can be very difficult for persons confined to a chair. Knowing a slight weight loss/gain can be a source of encouragement for the disabled on special diets.

Therefore, a home wheelchair scale has been developed. Similar to the model in the medical office, an individual rolls onto the scale and measures the weight, subtracting the weight of the chair. With the knowledge, the handicapped can correctly inform caregivers, who might be required to help lift dead weight, how much they weigh.

Wheelchair scales are not for vanity purposes. Knowing an accurate weight helps the handicapped eat diets appropriate for weight gain/loss. Also, caregivers can be cognizant of the assistance required to move a patient confined to a wheelchair. More importantly, doctors can get a current weight to correct prescribe medications and special diets. So, stay healthy and roll aboard a wheelchair scale.

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