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Disability advocates press committee for enforcement, lifts and accessible exam equipment after law passed last year
Summary
Disability advocates and medical professionals urged the committee to require enforcement and inventories for accessible medical diagnostic equipment and to add language ensuring availability and staff training for patient lifts; they asked that pending technical bills and enforcement provisions be consolidated into DPH revisions.
A large contingent of disability advocates, occupational and physical therapists, caregivers and clinicians told the Public Health Committee that last year’s law requiring accessible medical diagnostic equipment was a first step but lacks enforcement and effective implementation.
Witnesses described repeated problems in clinical settings: inaccessible exam tables, unavailable or incompatible patient lifts, scales that do not accommodate wheelchairs and understaffed or untrained personnel. Several witnesses submitted that the statute passed last year (PA 24‑113) did not include enforcement procedures or a requirement that medical facilities file inventories of equipment and corrective action plans with the Department of Public Health (DPH). Advocates asked the committee to either amend the DPH revisions bill to require inventories and enforceable timelines or to convene a task force to produce a legislative fix for 2026.
Examples given to the committee included patients who could not be weighed properly, or who were left in hallways because exam rooms were too small, as well as incidents where hospitals used incompatible lift fixtures that put patients at risk. Advocates urged the addition of enforceable inventory and reporting requirements so that DPH (or another agency) could track compliance and publicly disclose progress under Freedom‑of‑Information rules.
Therapists and clinical staff also emphasized the need for training: lifts are safe only when staff know the device and have enough personnel available. Nonprofit and hospital witnesses said some facilities need capital support to retrofit rooms and buy compatible lifts, and they suggested a short task force to assemble technical guidance and a funding plan.
Several committee members and witnesses asked DPH to produce a status report on the inventories and to work with stakeholders on an implementation plan; advocates pressed for a statutory path to enforcement rather than relying solely on voluntary compliance.
