Working in the medical industry is a delicate thing. It is an industry that relies on the feeling of trust and respect for the institution and people living there. This is why it’s so important that you find a way to enhance this by any means necessary. Patient experience needs to be your top priority and its formation starts long before your patients are received by the medical expert of their choosing. In fact, it starts as early as the booking of the appointment and the time they spend in the waiting room. Speaking of the latter, here are several design ideas to help you out.
- Entertainment
One of the biggest problems with the waiting room experience is the fact that it’s simply too long. However, while shortening the time that your visitors are waiting may be beyond the scope of the waiting room’s design, the perceived waiting time is not. According to one study, providing your audience with entertainment can reduce the perceived waiting time by a third. This would mean that 30 minutes in the waiting room would feel like 20 minutes. It goes without saying that to a patient who is nervous, every second passes like an hour.
Still, how do you provide them with the entertainment that they need? The first option is to provide them with a decent Wi-Fi connection. This way they can use their own phones, apps and social media accounts to entertain themselves. Other than this, you can place a screen on one of the walls in the room and find a suitable channel for your audience. Aside from this, leaving some brochures on display may provide your audience with some light reading material. This is also great, seeing as how it raises their overall awareness.
- Use Plants and Flowers
Proper Plants and flowers are very important for a doctor’s clinic. Not every flower can be used in a medical clinic, as many of them do not fit the theme and some herbs can cause allergies in patients. But that doesn’t mean to remove flowers from office design. Plants, due to their color and aroma, can calm our minds. But we can’t use all plants for all work environments. This will be more important than ever, especially when it comes to medical waiting rooms. The waiting room is the place where patients are in the worst possible time, and the waiting time is very difficult for them. You can make the waiting time easier for them by using ornamental flowers or plant walls and make your clinic eco-friendly.
- Comfort
The next thing worth mentioning is the concept of comfort. Bear in mind that your patients might be in a great deal of physical pain or discomfort, as they are. This would mean that they will be uncomfortable in certain positions, by default but if your seating is inadequate, things will get even worse. Other than this, uncomfortable seating will increase their perceived waiting time drastically. This alone makes the situation worse for everyone. Fortunately, this also means that with the right choice of seating, your waiting room can benefit double-fold.
- Small luxuries
Perhaps the biggest contradiction in the health systems around the world is the fact that the only food available in the waiting room is vending machine snacks, candy and soda. In other words, sugar-filled nourishments that no reputable nutritionist would ever recommend – yet, they are placed at the very center of your waiting room. One of the simplest ways to show that you are, indeed, different is to offer your audience an alternative. All you need to do in order to drastically change this image is to offer a vending machine with fruits, water and healthy snacks. This is a simple method, even if somewhat unconventional.
- Specialized clinic design
Another thing you need to keep in mind is that, unless you’re running a general practice, you might want to specialize your clinic a bit. You see, each patient already has some expectations when coming to visit your office. What this means is that if, for instance, you’re running a dental clinic, what you need is an expert specializing in dental clinic designs. A lot of people have an irrational fear of dentists but they are fully aware of their importance and necessity. By having a high-end-looking dental clinic, you can increase your authority and trustworthiness, both of which are incredibly important for your patient relations.
- Keep the ambiance as pleasant as possible
Other than comfort and combating boredom, you need to find other ways to set the minds of your patients at ease. This can be done by appealing to all the senses of those in the waiting room. Sound-proofing the room is something that should be a top priority. Playing something neutral and pleasant in the background is also a good idea. As for the light, it should be strong enough to allow for the reading but not so intense that it irritates those in the waiting room. The temperature also has to be neutral, which is somewhat more difficult to pull off, seeing as how different people have a different subjective perception of the temperature.
In conclusion
One of the most crucial things to mention here is the fact that you’re still in the healthcare industry. This means that you are meant to tend to both mind and body of your patients. Design of the room where they are supposed to spend time prior to the examination/procedure may play a part in this. So, listening to the above-listed several tips may be just what the doctor prescribed.
About the Author
Maggie Holmes is a passionate blogger keen on writing about home improvement, fashion and business. Her hobby is to surf the net to find amazing articles that can inspire her with fresh ideas for article writing. She loathes being a common person who wastes her time. You can follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MaggieH04666334