If you’re like the average person, you probably have a bathroom scale or two in your house and maybe some type of kitchen scale or light weight postal scale. And, that’s about it regarding weighing scales. But, let’s say you are at home and you need to weigh someone in a wheelchair. Perhaps it’s a relative who’s visiting from out of town. How would you weigh someone in a wheelchair at home?
Challenges of Wheelchair Weighing at Home
Well, ideally, this person would have their own portable set of wheelchair scales. But, if they don’t, here are some steps you can follow to weigh someone in a wheelchair at home.
#1 Find a scale that is suitable for weighing someone in a wheelchair. Some scales have a built-in ramp or a platform that can be used to roll the wheelchair onto the scale. Think of places like the local doctor’s office, hospital, clinics, (maybe even a veterinary hospital if their scale is wide enough). Technically this isn’t in your “home” but maybe you will have one of these businesses that’s near your home for an easy drive.
#2 Roll the person in the wheelchair onto the scale, making sure that the wheels of the wheelchair are on the scale’s platform.
#3 Have the person sit still and keep their feet on the footrests of the wheelchair.
#4 Look at the scale’s display to see the person’s weight.
Keep in mind that it may be difficult to get an accurate weight reading if the person in the wheelchair is moving around or if the scale is not on a level surface. It may be helpful to have someone assist you in holding the wheelchair steady while taking the weight measurement.
Alternative Weighing Choices for Wheelchairs
Look, when it comes down to the question of how to weigh someone in a wheelchair at home? there are not a lot of options to do this inside a persons house. The best idea is usually to find a local doctors office or perhaps a warehouse nearby that has a 4×4 platform scale.
A few other choices to consider or try…. If you have several bathroom scales, you could try to carefully place the wheelchair across those scales, although we wouldn’t recommend that. You can also try to take the patient to your nearest doctors office or hospital and see if they will allow you to use their scale. If you happen to have large dog weighing scales or live near a vet clinic, you could try that route. If you live near an industrial area, chances are good that some business probably has an industrial floor scale for weighing pallets that they might allow you to borrow for a brief moment to obtain a weight of a person in a wheelchair.