Twenty-two physicians offered candid insights on the difficulties of treating patients with disabilities in anonymous focus groups conducted for a study published this month in Health Affairs.
Researchers conducted three video sessions with primary care physicians and specialists from across the U.S., many of whom expressed hesitancy in treating patients with disabilities. Numerous physicians suggested that it was a burden to provide physical or verbal accommodations for patients and that they were inadequately reimbursed for such services. Some said treating patients with disabilities also hindered the flow of their practices.
"Seeing patients at a 15-minute clip is absolutely ridiculous. To have someone say, well we're still going to see those patients with mild to moderate disability in those time frames — it's just unreasonable and it's unacceptable to me," one physician said.
Because of these concerns, some physicians admitted to using various excuses to deny care to people with disabilities
"You cannot refuse them straight. We have to give them an appointment," one physician said, acknowledging that physicians cannot legally discriminate against a patient because of a disability. "You have to come up with a solution that this is a small facility, we are not doing justice to you, it is better you would be taken care of in a special facility."
The study findings closely mirror reports of substandard healthcare experiences made by many patients with disabilities, according to study author Tara Lagu, MD, a professor of medicine and medical social science at Evanston, lll.-based Northwestern University.
Dr. Lagu told The New York Times that a national requirement for healthcare organizations to collect data on the care and outcomes of people with disabilities could help identify disparities and improve care for this population.