Wheelchairs - Scooters - Accessories

A good medical wheelchair needs to have a of number features.  Some are already present on standard extant models, but many others are not.  A number of “extra” features should be standard on medical wheelchairs.  Most manufacturers haven’t even thought about considering that they might be a really good idea.
For the purposes of this article, medical wheelchairs will be seen to be separate from those designed for individual use.  There is a reason for that, which is that they should be considered and produced as diverse entities.
An individual wheelchair is just that.  It is designed to provide the closest equivalent to natural mobility that a person who has been deprived of the same to due to accident, injury, or illness.  
Thus, they include features designed to facilitate that very important need.  The specifics vary but almost always include the ability to be folded up and put into a car for convenient travel and a height most suited to the occupant.
Outside of the need to transport individuals from location to location, medical wheelchairs have a vastly different range of needs than those for individuals.  These needs have not been addressed until recently.  
This leads to, among other things, unnecessary wear and tear on chairs and people and largely preventable theft.  Both of these have increased hospitals costs and there has yet to be an era where that is a good thing.
For people who do not work in the medical fields, the concept of wheelchair theft may be unfamiliar.  However, stop to consider that they have wheels and are designed to be propelled by the occupant, as well as not being easily secured – except in a locked room.  
Hospital personnel often have more pressing concerns, such as saving a patient, than getting a chair locked up in a basement storage room.  Combine this with the aforementioned ability to be folded up and put in a car, and wheelchair theft is a very costly concern for all manner of care facilities.
Further, a great many of the uses of medical wheelchairs are not by those who have mobility issues.  Rather policy, safety concerns, or temporary impairment requires that institutional personnel transfer the client from one locale to another.  This obviates the need for a chair to be propelled by its occupant.  Eliminating that ability makes the chair less open to theft as well giving attendants heightened ability to deal with obstreperous patients.
When the need for independent propulsion is removed, a completely new world opens up.  The handle used to steer the chair can be repositioned so that the attendant can get the most movement with the least strain.  
The same goes for raising arms and elevatable footrests, designed for easy transfer and positioning.  The addition of automatically locking brakes is a feature that most standard wheelchairs could stand to incorporate into their own designs.
A further feature that makes for an excellent medical wheelchair, both in terms of cost effectiveness and ease of use, is the fact that this redesigned product is also nestable – like shopping carts or rentable luggage carriers.  This means that several secure and convenient locations can be accessed in any institution where the chairs can be stored and retrieved quickly in time of need.