Design Ideas to Decrease Wait Times in the Doctor’s Office Waiting Room

Childrens Hospital Design
Photo Credit: childrensdayton.org

Long wait times are a customary part of going to the doctor that cause both doctor and patient losses in productivity. Good design can reduce wait times in unexpected ways; improving patient satisfaction in the long run.

How to Decrease Wait Time?

This article shows 5 distinct ways your doctor’s office design can reduce wait times. It shows how with a little planning you can manage patient care more effectively and improve time management.

For example, having a number of examination rooms that are not a prime number makes a big difference. Also, if the number of patient exam rooms not divisible by the number of nurses it can result in an unexpected loss in productivity. With seven rooms and three nursing staff members, one nurse ends up with three patients instead of two; meaning 42% of your patients experience ‘above average’ wait times! Maintaining an easily divisible ratio of exam rooms to staff, such as 1 to 3, 1 to 4, or 1 to 5 ensures an even workload, making sure each patient receives a uniform wait time.

Click below to see the original article in Healthcare design Magazine for information on this and four other ingenious ways design can speed up wait times in medical offices.

Read the original article here:
Five Ways Design Can Make Doctors’ Visits Shorter

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Articles written by SensoryEdge are a combined effort of the SensoryEdge publishing staff. At SensoryEdge our focus is to educate, inform, and inspire each person caring for children to be and do their very best. It is not always easy and sometimes we don't take action (or we take the wrong action) because of a lack of understanding the real issues. We hope that the conversations that occur here will help in some small way better the lives of children, their families, and the professionals who work with them.