Wheelchair Evaluations: Methods in Refining Assessment Skills for Occupational and Physical Therapists

Course overview

To determine when the transition is functionally appropriate for a patient from a walker to a manual wheelchair and from a manual wheelchair to a power chair. To review typical insurance coverages for manual and power chairs. To offer outreach information: how to go about contacting relevant doctors and medical equipment providers. To provide common wheelchair evaluations, including a manual chair, power chair, and power chair safety checklist. To convey additional diagnostic and functional information that should be included in the wheelchair assessment to ensure insurance coverage. To suggest standardized tests pertaining to cognition and visual and motor perception as they relate to the wheelchair assessment. To assist therapists in developing persuasive language appropriate for wheelchair evaluations to access insurance coverage. To formulate wheelchair training into billable treatment and billable evaluations. To cover common ethical and safety problems that accompany wheelchair assessment and how to circumvent such dilemmas.