How to Design the Perfect Medical Consulting Room

An attractive medical consulting room can prevent patients from feeling merely like numbers in a list. The positive reinforcement that a well-designed medical consulting room can provide is immense, especially when the patients are waiting for their appointment. The consulting room’s positive energy can reflect upon the patient and even be instrumental in their recovery. The best doctors are also busy doctors and hence the period of waiting might also be tempered with an effective consulting room that helps ease this period.

Design of a Perfect Consulting Room

Every consulting room should have multiple sections dedicated to various purposes, as well as service-focused sections such as x-ray rooms. Function should be at the heart of the design and easy movement of personnel and patients between the rooms should be facilitated. Comfortable, inviting and well-equipped, the ideal medical office space DC should make patients happy about having chosen you as their care-giver. Easy access to disabled patients is also a must-have for any medical practice.

The ideal structure of a medical practice would consist of:

Reception
Waiting Room
Kids area
Consulting Rooms
Treatment Rooms
Staff Area
Office space
Toilets

Without these areas, a healthcare centre or clinic will always remain incomplete. And if your consulting area does not have these requisite spaces then you must seriously consider redesigning it.

Factors That Influence the Design of a Consulting Room

There are 4 key things to keep in mind when redesigning your medical consulting room:

Image

A medical practice is also a business and every business needs to have a vision; the image it conveys to patients is a key part of it. The field of medicine you specialise in plays a large part in choosing the design for a consulting room.

If you are a psychologist for instance, you will probably prefer a calming environment with artworks, minimal noise pollution and some soothing music while your patients wait to meet with you. On the other hand, if you are a pediatrician, a child-friendly waiting room that has puzzles, cartoons, comics and toys is ideal for the type of patients visiting you. Even a general practitioner must decide the kind of image he wants to convey from his consulting room.

Positive Reinforcement

Ample natural or artificial light, ample airflow at a comfortable temperature, an attractive colour scheme and statues or paintings at vital points; it is these small touches that can turn your consulting room into a great source of positive reinforcement. It is also advisable to have a television tuned to some light-hearted entertainment that can keep the patients laughing. Laughter is indeed the best medicine!

Convenience

Per norms, it is advisable to add services such as X-ray, laboratory, pharmacy, coffee shop, library, physiotherapy rooms etc. to your medical consulting room. This might require you to connect with local businesses, but can improve the experience offered to the patients immensely. The kind of add-on services you want to offer is totally dependent on the kind of practice.

For example, an orthopedist is recommended to have dedicated x-ray and physiotherapy sections within his medical consulting room while a general doctor’s practice is incomplete without a pharmacy and a psychologist should have a library or a yoga practice tied to his practice. Each specific field of medicine can have its own specific demands. It is important to reflect and consider your patients as clients first.

Location

The place where you have chosen to start your clinic also plays a big part in the kind of consulting room you want to set up. It is important to ask yourself who your largest client base is. The medical consulting room’s décor should be different per the patients visiting it. Is it in an area with a lot of elderly people? Then it is advisable to have a calmer colour tone, lots of health magazines on the table and a TV on low volume.

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