Study: Many Boston Doctors' Offices Inaccessible For Disabled

A new study has found that more than one in six doctors' offices in Boston couldn't schedule appointments for callers posing as patients using wheelchairs, a problem that violates federal law and could delay critical treatment.

According to the study by researchers at Springfield's Baystate Medical Center, callers turned away by physicians in Boston and three other cities were mostly told the offices lacked an exam table that could be raised and lowered or a lift for transferring a patient out of their wheelchair. In some cases, practices were located in wheelchair inaccessible buildings.

The findings were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Study leader Dr. Tara Lagu told The Boston Globe said she is "shocked" every time she hears from patients in wheelchairs who can't get appointments.