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Bathroom safety

The bathroom is where most falls happen: wet surfaces, hard edges, and a tub wall to get over. These are the items that remove a step rather than asking someone to be steadier.

Bathroom safety: 12 items

How to choose bathroom equipment

The bathroom is where most falls happen: wet surfaces, hard edges, and a tub wall to get over. Almost everything on this page works by removing a step rather than asking someone to be steadier.

Start with the tub wall, not the shower chair

Getting over the wall is the hard part, not sitting down. A transfer bench spans the wall, so the person sits down first and slides across, lifting one foot over at a time. A shower chair only helps once they are already inside. We compare them in shower chair versus transfer bench.

A suction bar is not a grab bar

Suction cups hold on smooth tile until they do not, and they give no warning first. A real grab bar is screwed into structure, a stud or a backing plate, and is rated to take a person’s full weight applied suddenly. Treat suction bars as a balance cue, never as something to catch a fall.

Raised seats, frames, and when a commode wins

A raised seat shortens the distance to stand from. A frame adds arms to push up on. When the bathroom is too far or too tight at night, a commode beside the bed is safer than the trip, and commode chairs are on Medicare’s covered list. See toilet transfers, including tight bathrooms.

Drop arm matters more than people expect

A drop arm commode has an armrest that swings out of the way, which is what makes a sideways slide across possible. Fixed arms force a stand and a turn. If transfers are already hard, that one feature changes the whole task.

What this equipment costs, and who pays

Medicare Part B covers medically necessary durable medical equipment when a provider prescribes it for use at home. After the Part B deductible you pay 20 percent of the Medicare approved amount. Hospital beds, commode chairs, walkers, wheelchairs and scooters are all on Medicare’s own list.

Whether one specific item qualifies is decided case by case, so ask the clinic’s social worker before paying out of pocket. Check that the supplier is enrolled in Medicare and accepts assignment, and ask whether the item is rented or bought, because that differs by equipment type.

Our guides to free and low-cost equipment programs and financial resources cover the routes that are not Medicare, including loan closets and nonprofit grants.

Coverage details from Medicare on durable medical equipment.

Guides on this site

• Using a shower transfer bench safely
• Toilet transfer techniques
• Bathing without a shower
• What to change in the home first