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How to ensure your healthcare practice is ADA-compliant
Creating a friendly and convenient experience that respects all patients' dignity, rights, and privacy doesn’t have to be complicated.
Today's practice owners demonstrate creativity and imagination when building and designing their practices. From hand-painted murals to relaxing themes, they curate unique experiences for their patients, teams, and selves. As an aspiring or established practice owner, you likely have your own vibe and aesthetic you want to create. And as you design a practice that is uniquely yours, you’re also tasked with creating an accessible practice.
Dustin Walker from Nashville Dental Inc., who specializes in professional design and planning services across various dental specialties, and Jim Nickle, principal at Nickle Architects, PLLC, who has 25 years of experience as a practicing architect, recently joined us on The Path to Owning It, where they shared insights for how practice owners can ensure their offices are accessible to all individuals. Below are our action items from the conversation, but for a deeper dive, listen to the episode.
Create better patient experiences for all.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards for Accessible Design, along with Title II and Title III regulations, exist to ensure businesses are meeting basic accessibility requirements. Often, these minimum standards give all patients a better experience. Whether it be wider hallways or a certain desk height to accommodate wheelchair access for check-in and checkout, by meeting the basic requirements, these standards ensure your practice is accessible to all individuals, including those with disabilities.
Consult healthcare-specific experts.
Designing for aesthetics, accessibility, and ergonomic flow within a healthcare practice takes careful planning. Partnering with healthcare-specific builders, vendors, and architects can help you work through any nuances, make informed decisions, and ensure you’re integrating accessibility into the whole.
For example, while ensuring your patient restroom is ADA-compliant may come as no surprise, it may surprise you to learn that your second, private restroom could also face compliance requirements. In fact, most things in your practice will likely have dedicated space and clearance requirements, from your bathrooms to your patient rooms. While you may want to make your hallways a bit narrower to save on square footage, it may not be an area you can cut in order to maintain proper clearances for entering and exiting patient rooms.
Besides ADA requirements, practice owners should plan for moving equipment, making it important to plan for clearances around door swings and the general movement throughout the practice. Your expert team should be familiar with these nuances and be able to guide you through them. Additionally, there can be variations from municipality to municipality, making it important to include some local experts early on, as they’ll know how strictly the code will be enforced and how it will be interpreted in your community.
Make it yours.
While the ADA sets the basic requirements, you have the power to take it to the next level. Dr. Chriska Mustafa, DDS, co-owner at Root Modern Dentistry, was meticulous and intentional when designing her practice, making decisions that would impact her practice's culture and patient experience. To ensure patient comfort and privacy, her practice features two wings. She customized her operatories to support patient preferences, offering options like windows for natural light and windowless spaces for those with specific medical needs. Recognizing the vital role of each team member, including hygienists, dental assistants, and front desk staff, she centralized sterilization, a heavily used aspect of the practice, with dual entry and exit doors on both sides. This attention to detail regarding her patient and team experiences, and day-to-day functionality, underscores the importance of customization and thoughtful office design.
When making customization decisions, consider the ADA as your starting point, but don’t be afraid to get creative and consider approaching your design process using Universal Design. Universal Design is defined as the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood, and used to the greatest extent possible by all people, regardless of their age, size, or ability. Universal Design keeps everyone in mind and can be applied to buildings and services. Universal Design simplifies, making spaces usable by as many people as possible. For example, sidewalk curb cuts help people in wheelchairs but are also used by people with strollers, skateboards, and rolling carts.
Go beyond design.
According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 6 people worldwide has a significant disability, making health equity for persons with disabilities a human right priority. Practice owners are positioned to address health inequality in the communities they serve, and accessible design can be a great place to start. It’s also important to recognize that accessibility applies to many areas of life and business beyond your practice’s physical design. For more on the laws, regulations, and other standards, visit ada.gov and consult other industry professionals.
By ensuring your practice is accessible to all individuals, you’re helping to create a more equitable healthcare system for all and improve the industry's standard of care.
Dustin Walker from Nashville Dental Inc., who specializes in professional design and planning services across various dental specialties, and Jim Nickle, principal at Nickle Architects, PLLC, who has 25 years of experience as a practicing architect, recently joined us on The Path to Owning It, where they shared insights for how practice owners can ensure their offices are accessible to all individuals. Below are our action items from the conversation, but for a deeper dive, listen to the episode.
Create better patient experiences for all.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards for Accessible Design, along with Title II and Title III regulations, exist to ensure businesses are meeting basic accessibility requirements. Often, these minimum standards give all patients a better experience. Whether it be wider hallways or a certain desk height to accommodate wheelchair access for check-in and checkout, by meeting the basic requirements, these standards ensure your practice is accessible to all individuals, including those with disabilities.
Consult healthcare-specific experts.
Designing for aesthetics, accessibility, and ergonomic flow within a healthcare practice takes careful planning. Partnering with healthcare-specific builders, vendors, and architects can help you work through any nuances, make informed decisions, and ensure you’re integrating accessibility into the whole.
For example, while ensuring your patient restroom is ADA-compliant may come as no surprise, it may surprise you to learn that your second, private restroom could also face compliance requirements. In fact, most things in your practice will likely have dedicated space and clearance requirements, from your bathrooms to your patient rooms. While you may want to make your hallways a bit narrower to save on square footage, it may not be an area you can cut in order to maintain proper clearances for entering and exiting patient rooms.
Besides ADA requirements, practice owners should plan for moving equipment, making it important to plan for clearances around door swings and the general movement throughout the practice. Your expert team should be familiar with these nuances and be able to guide you through them. Additionally, there can be variations from municipality to municipality, making it important to include some local experts early on, as they’ll know how strictly the code will be enforced and how it will be interpreted in your community.
Make it yours.
While the ADA sets the basic requirements, you have the power to take it to the next level. Dr. Chriska Mustafa, DDS, co-owner at Root Modern Dentistry, was meticulous and intentional when designing her practice, making decisions that would impact her practice's culture and patient experience. To ensure patient comfort and privacy, her practice features two wings. She customized her operatories to support patient preferences, offering options like windows for natural light and windowless spaces for those with specific medical needs. Recognizing the vital role of each team member, including hygienists, dental assistants, and front desk staff, she centralized sterilization, a heavily used aspect of the practice, with dual entry and exit doors on both sides. This attention to detail regarding her patient and team experiences, and day-to-day functionality, underscores the importance of customization and thoughtful office design.
When making customization decisions, consider the ADA as your starting point, but don’t be afraid to get creative and consider approaching your design process using Universal Design. Universal Design is defined as the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood, and used to the greatest extent possible by all people, regardless of their age, size, or ability. Universal Design keeps everyone in mind and can be applied to buildings and services. Universal Design simplifies, making spaces usable by as many people as possible. For example, sidewalk curb cuts help people in wheelchairs but are also used by people with strollers, skateboards, and rolling carts.
Go beyond design.
According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 6 people worldwide has a significant disability, making health equity for persons with disabilities a human right priority. Practice owners are positioned to address health inequality in the communities they serve, and accessible design can be a great place to start. It’s also important to recognize that accessibility applies to many areas of life and business beyond your practice’s physical design. For more on the laws, regulations, and other standards, visit ada.gov and consult other industry professionals.
By ensuring your practice is accessible to all individuals, you’re helping to create a more equitable healthcare system for all and improve the industry's standard of care.
This content is for informational purposes and does not constitute the rendering of legal, accounting, tax, or investment advice, or other professional services by neither Provide, its affiliates, nor Fifth Third Bank, and it is being provided without any warranty whatsoever. Please consult with appropriate professionals related to your individual circumstances.