Can you know before you go? Information about disability accommodations on US hospital websites.

Abstract

Background: People with disability (PWD) face challenges accessing healthcare. Websites are a public-facing resource that can help PWD determine if a hospital can accommodate their needs, yet few studies have described whether hospital websites contain adequate accommodation information.

Objective: To characterize the extent to which information about disability accommodations is available on US hospital websites.

Methods: We manually reviewed hospital websites using a structured extraction form. We used the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Hospital General Information Data set to identify a stratified random sample of 600 nonspecialty hospitals in the United States. We excluded hospitals that shared a website with a previously reviewed hospital for a final sample of 445. We recorded (1) content about specific disability accommodations (in 11 predetermined categories); (2) descriptions of hospital policy mentioning disability; and (3) the point of contact to obtain more information about accommodations.

Results: About two-thirds (65.6%) of sampled hospitals were acute care hospitals (vs 34.4% critical access); 53.5% had 26-299 beds. Overall, 73.7% websites had information about accommodations; of these, 36.3% had information solely within hospital policies. Of the 47.0% websites with accommodation information beyond hospital policies, the mean number of accommodations listed (excluding policy statements) was 2.37 (of 11 possible). Hospitals with 300+ beds had higher odds of listing any nonpolicy accommodations than those with 1-26 beds (odds ratio = 2.768, p = .02). Less than half (40.5%) hospitals listed a contact person.

Conclusions: Information about disability accommodations is sparse on hospital websites. Comprehensive and actionable communication about accommodations is needed to better protect PWD's rights to accessible healthcare.