title: A new barrier-free burn center.
abstract: This article describes a barrier-free burn center that is accessible to persons with disabilities and that complies with Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The burn center has 3 separate components: patient rooms, patient support facilities, and staff support facilities. Thirteen rooms are used to care for 16 patients. Two of the 13 rooms are accessible to people with disabilities. These 2 rooms have wide doors that permit a wheelchair to pass through, and they have enough clear floor space for a wheelchair to make a 180 degrees turn. The rooms have a sink that is accessible from a wheelchair. The bathrooms have large, clear floor spaces that allow for the turning of a wheelchair, elevated toilets, grab bars, and showers that permit wheelchair access. Special wheelchairs that provide easier shower and commode access are available. The patient support services feature a large hydrotherapy room that contains a table-shower system that allows a person in a wheelchair to gain access to both sides of the shower table. A tub room has been constructed to provide compact patient bathing and hydromassage, and it is also accessible to people in wheelchairs. The staff support services include a locker room that has a shower accessible to people with disabilities so that staff members with mobility disorders can work in the burn center. Grade II braille writing marks all of the signs that designate the permanent rooms and spacing in the burn center and in the contiguous common use areas. The common use area has a restroom accessible to people with disabilities and a waiting room with a telephone communications system for people with mobility disorders or mobility impairment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville 22908, USA.
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Edlich
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Neal
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Suber
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kirby
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Woods
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bentram
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McGawen
mesh_terms: D001107:Architectural Accessibility / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D002053:Burn Units; D006801:Humans; D010362:Patients' Rooms; D014481:United States; D014768:Virginia; D014910:Wheelchairs