Making waiting as painless as possible for patients
Practice Management. By Julie A. Jacob, amednews staff. March 25, 2002.
First impressions do count. Accurately or not, people form their opinions of a person or place based on what they see in the first few seconds.
And what's the first thing that patients see when they walk into a physician's office?
The waiting room.
That's why it's important that it's a comfortable, pleasant place.
Physicians often don't think about how the waiting room looks because it's a part of the office that they usually don't enter, said Rayne Sherman, a partner with Sherman Gabus Inc., an interior design and architecture firm in Long Beach, Calif., that has designed several physician offices.
However, how comfortable and relaxed patients feel in the waiting room influences their perceptions of the type of care they will receive before they even step foot into the examining room.
"The first impression the patient has of the practice and how the practice wishes to be thought of is portrayed in the thoughtfulness of the waiting room," said Sherman.
A pleasant waiting room will also help patients relax before they see the doctor, pointed out Ivan Beardsley, a principal with Beardsley Weiss LLC, an interior design firm in Los Angeles that designs medical offices. Going to the doctor can be stressful, he said, but a pleasant, calming waiting room can help ease their patients' jitters.
"We believe the healing process begins by the overall atmosphere of the office," said Beardsley. "We can make people feel better by a destination that is comforting and inviting."
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Copyright 2002 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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