A treatment table is the most-used piece of furniture in a rehab clinic, and the wrong one taxes every transfer, every treatment and every clinician's back, every day. The decisions that matter are few but consequential: fixed or height-adjustable, how the top should section, and how much weight it has to carry. This page takes them in order.

Fixed-height vs. hi-lo: how clinics decide

Fixed-height tables are the simple, durable default: a hardwood H-brace or panel-leg table at a set height, nothing to adjust and nothing to wear out. They suit dedicated treatment rooms, school and athletic training rooms, and mat-table work where the patient population is ambulatory. The CanDo and 3B Scientific hardwood tables in the picks below are the pattern — 400-pound-class capacity at training-room prices.

Motorized hi-lo tables earn their cost wherever transfers matter. The top lowers so a patient can move from a wheelchair at seat height, then raises to the clinician's working height — which is why hi-lo is the standard in hospital rehab, neuro and geriatric programs, and anywhere clinicians treat all day. Within hi-lo, top configuration is the next choice: single-section tops for general treatment, two-section tops with a raising back, and three-section tops — including Armedica's power-flexing center section — for positioning work.

Then match capacity and specialty. Standard tables in this range are commonly rated around 400 pounds; bariatric programs should look at reinforced models such as Tri W-G's motor hi-lo line, rated to 750 pounds. Specialty rooms have their own tables: Chattanooga's Galaxy TTET300 is a three-section hi-lo traction table, and Armedica builds motorized changing tables with side rails for dependent-care settings. Space matters too — Clinton's space-saver and panel-leg designs put a full treatment surface in rooms a standard table would crowd.

Frequently asked questions