In clinical abbreviations, what does w/c most commonly stand for?

• A. Wheelchair
• B. Walk Chair
• C. Work Chair
• D. Water Closet

Answer: (A)

In clinical shorthand, w/c is used to mean wheelchair, a mobility device used to move patients who can’t walk or have limited mobility. The slash helps compress the idea of a wheel-based chair into a quick note, and wheelchair is one of the most common items encountered in patient care, so this interpretation is the standard one clinicians use.

Walk Chair and Work Chair aren’t recognized medical terms for mobility aids, so they aren’t used in this context. Water Closet is a restroom, usually abbreviated WC (often without the slash and in uppercase), so it isn’t the meaning intended when clinicians write w/c.