A wheelchair is measured one way and a doorway another. The chair's width is printed on its paperwork. The doorway's usable width is smaller than the door, because the door stands behind its frame and its stop, and a door that opens fully may still block a good part of the gap. Most trouble on a sickroom route is found in that difference, and it is usually found on the day the chair is already in the hall.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
Measure the opening, not the door
Take a tape to each doorway the chair must pass: from the bedroom to the bathroom, the kitchen, the front entry, and the room where the person sits during the day. Measure from the face of the stop on the hinge side to the face of the stop on the latch side, with the door open as far as it will go. Measure at the narrowest point, which is often the top of the frame or a molding that projects. Write each number beside the room name.
Then ask the equipment company for the chair's overall width with the armrests on, the seat width, and whether the footrests and armrests come off or fold back. A chair with its footrests in place may be wider than the seat measurement suggests. Compare the overall width to each opening and leave a few inches on each side, so that knuckles and the frame do not strike the wall. If an opening is close, decide before delivery whether the door comes off its hinges, whether a different chair is ordered, or whether the chair simply will not pass through that door. That decision belongs to the family and the hospice team, and it is better made in daylight than in the middle of the night.
Check the turns and the stopping space
A straight hallway can be wide enough and still fail at the corner. Stand where the chair would turn and mark the floor with painter's tape along the walls. Note whether the chair can make the turn without the footrest catching the wall or the door frame. Check the space in front of the bathroom door, where the chair must stop, turn, and back out. Check the place beside the bed where the chair will sit during transfers, and look for anything in the way: a dresser corner, a rug edge, a cord, a plant stand.
Check the outside route too
The chair must also get from the car or the ramp to the door, and from the door to the room. Measure the front door opening and note whether it swings outward or inward and whether a second person will be needed to hold it. If the route includes steps, ask whoever delivers the chair how they plan to bring it in, and whether the company carries it or leaves it at the door. Write down any step or threshold you find, and leave the fix for it to a separate decision.
Name who measures and who rechecks
Keep the measurements on the same page as the room list. Name the person who did the measuring, and name the person who will check again when the chair is swapped, when a new model arrives, or when a relative brings a larger chair for a visit. Name who calls the equipment company if a chair does not fit, since the company's answer depends on the chair's paperwork and whether it can be exchanged. Ask the hospice team who handles equipment questions under the plan of care, and ask the company for its exchange rule before the chair is unpacked.
Keep the tape measure in a drawer near the sickroom. The house will change: a rug goes down, a dresser moves, a second chair arrives. Each change is small, but each one takes away a few inches, and a few inches is the difference between a chair that passes through a doorway and one that does not.