Office Waiting Rooms-They Are Your First Impression

 Image source

There isn’t a person on the planet that looks forward to sitting on a thinly padded chair in the sterile waiting room of your doctor’s office for 55 minutes, knowing they will be sat between a kid watching Youtube videos at full-volume and an elderly gentleman that’s constantly spluttering without once covering his mouth. It’s the worst. Sure they could move to an equally uncomfortable chair, but they will just meet another migraine-inducing scenario so what’s the point?

That’s what makes your patient waiting room so indescribably important to your healthcare business. This is their first impression of you. This is where you get the chance to show you care from the outset. Sure, the best thing you could do is to cut the wait times, but that’s not the only option you have.

So, without further ado, here a few ideas you should consider implementing to create the sort of waiting room your patients will absolutely love (and maybe even look forward to chilling in):

1. Furniture First, Then Layout

What is it with waiting rooms all adopting the same look of row after row of antimicrobial chairs, and peeling wood tables stacked with torn and worn old magazines? It gives people the heebie-jeebies. What you want to do is liberate your patients by creating a variety of seating options. Add a cluster of chairs around a quirky coffee table that families can sit at, create a quiet space for professionals to enjoy, and pop a child-friendly area into a corner where kids can do their thing without annoying others. Oh, and make sure the seats are comfy, cutting edge and pastel coloured.

    2.Do More With Your Decor

Nothing is worse than stepping into another sterile, white waiting room. It’s something we all loathe, which is why you should try making your waiting room personal and exciting. Create an amazing patient experience with print graphics on the walls, use warm colours and soft lighting instead of bright whites and even brighter lights. Pop some vinyl prints on the floors. Anything you can to make your space feel a little more, well, homely. That’s the aim of the game here.

    3.Go For Active Waiting, Not Passive

The more you can do to stop your patients from watching the clock the shorter their wait time will seem, which is why you need to make their experience more active, either directly or indirectly. As standard, you should have some free WiFi so they can do their own thing on their phones, but don’t stop there. Have work desks, communal tables, charging stations, children’s tablets, and iPads complete with digital magazine subscriptions, games, apps and newspapers. It will make their experience fly by, like a train going through a station it’s not scheduled to stop at.

   4.Have A Smiley Receptionist On Hand

Think about it: the first person your patients will come into contact with is probably going to be your receptionist, so make sure they are always greeted with a smile, a friendly personality, someone kind and helpful, and someone wonderfully discrete. That’s what patients want from the first point of contact.