If you are considering developing, redecorating or redesigning your medical centre, then a good approach is by prioritising the patient experience. The design and layout of a medical centre can have a huge bearing on the mood, perception and experience of your patients.
Here are the best tips for designing your space to help your patients feel at ease:
1. Make Your Consulting Room More Welcoming
Your consulting room’s layout, light levels and colour have been proven to raise or lower anxiety.
Where possible, ensure your consulting room is not too small. It can make your patients feel claustrophobic.
To help patients feel at ease, try to draw lots of natural light into the consulting and waiting rooms. Natural light and light colours will make your consulting room more welcoming.
2. Maximise Your Patient Privacy
Dividable multi-function rooms and open-plan clinic designs are popular in modern medical clinic designs. However, these should not be at the expense of privacy. Privacy goes a long way to helping patients feel more comfortable and secure.
It is a challenge to strike a balance between openness and light, while still providing a private experience for patients. These two objectives should shape the design, flow and layout of your medical centre and, if achieved, can create a great overall experience for patients.
3. Design for Children
Children are afraid of going to the doctor. It is, therefore, important to consider the needs of the children. You can create a separate space in your medical clinic for children.
In addition, you can incorporate child-sized furniture in your waiting room to make children feel comfortable. You can even add entertainment to keep parents and their children happy as they wait for their appointment.
4. Design for Elderly People
Elderly people are more likely to experience reduced mobility. They are more likely to use walkers and wheelchairs. And they cannot easily get out of their chairs.
You can, therefore, use supportive chairs, lower reception desks and wide doorways and corridors to address the patients with mobility issues. You can even create a space in your waiting room for these patients to ‘park’ their walkers.
Additionally, you can get patients with low vision. You need to consider their needs when designing your space. You can carefully plan your furniture and remove any tripping hazards in your reception and waiting room.
Conclusion
Designing your space to help your patients feel at ease can help you get more patients. If your patients are happy and comfortable in your medical clinic, they can instantly feel better.
It is, therefore, best to hire specialists to help you design your space and do medical fit out. If you want to do medical fit outs or renovate your medical centre, talk to Chest Constructions – the Perth medical fit out specialists today.