If you run a medical or dental practice, you’ll know how essential it is to ensure your patients feel relaxed and welcomed as soon as they enter your space. Unfortunately, the majority of people dread visiting their GP or dental practice, which is why it’s so important that they feel as calm as possible in your practice. So, in this article, we’ll take you through some of the design, layout and furniture elements you can choose for your dental or medical practice, to ensure it’s both hygienic and welcoming at the same time.
Making your Medical or Dental Practice Hygienic and Welcoming
If you run a medical or dental practice, you’ll know how essential it is to ensure your patients feel relaxed and welcomed as soon as they enter your space.
Unfortunately, the majority of people dread visiting their GP or dental practice, which is why it’s so important that they feel as calm as possible in your practice.
So, in this article, we’ll take you through some of the design, layout and furniture elements you can choose for your dental or medical practice, to ensure it’s both hygienic and welcoming at the same time.
Easing Patients’ Stress
One of the main things you should consider when it comes to designing and furnishing your medical or dental practice is how you’ll ensure patients aren’t stressed about visiting your premises.
This is essential when it comes to getting loyal repeat patients who will recommend their family and friends to your practice.
There are several ways you can achieve this, from having a comfortable and welcoming reception area, to using calm paint colours on the walls, such as light blue.
The idea is to make your patients feel like they’re in a home from home of sorts, so that going to the dentist or medical practice doesn’t feel daunting.
Making Patients Feel Welcome
Following on from this, there are many ways you can also make your patients feel welcome.
For example, you could offer children stickers and other exciting things when they’ve had their checkup or treatment. With adult patients, a refreshment station always makes people feel more comfortable and welcome.
In addition, having a clearly signposted journey for your patients also helps, as it reduces confusion while they’re walking around your practice. They’re much more likely to enjoy the experience at your practice if they know where they’re going without any confusion.
The Importance of Calming Colours
As we touched on above, colours can have a surprising effect on both patients and employees alike in your medical or dental practice, with lighter colours generally being more calming than bright and vivid tones.
In addition to painting the walls certain colours and using different prints and wallpaper, you could also follow this calming colour scheme when it comes to furniture and soft furnishings.
Ideally, these colours should also match or tie in with your brand, to ensure your company and your practice premises are as synchronous as possible.
Having a Friendly Team
In addition to the design and furnishing of your office, having a friendly team is essential when it comes to making patients feel at home when visiting your medical or dental practice.
Sometimes, all it takes is a friendly face or a smile to help someone relax and realise that visiting their dentist, GP or other medical practice doesn’t have to be a terrifying thing.
Also, a lot of the time, patients are more likely to remember the employees they talked to, so if your team is friendly and helpful, your patients are far more likely to return.
Comfortable Furniture
Another thing which we mentioned above is comfortable furniture – and this is an important part of making sure your medical or dental practice is welcoming.
All of these aspects are part of what makes your patients’ experience in your practice enjoyable and welcoming.
Too many dental and medical practices have creaky and uncomfortable seating, which makes the whole waiting process even more stressful and difficult for patients who are already nervous.
When it comes to keeping your practice hygienic, it’s also important to ensure these seating areas are cleaned regularly to keep all patients safe.
Waiting Areas
There are several different things you can do to your waiting area to ensure it welcomes patients in and settles any nerves.
As we’ve discussed above, having a signposted journey for patients, as well as comfortable furniture and friendly staff.
In addition, there are other things you can add to your patients’ experience at your practice.
Firstly, you can use plants to brighten up your practice’s waiting area, as well as helping purify the air in the room, depending on which plant you pick. Plants can also help lift people’s mood, which is ideal when it comes to helping patients relax.
Also, you can provide entertainment for your patients while they wait to be seen, whether that’s with a TV screen, a set of magazines or books.
This way, you can make your practice’s waiting area a more enjoyable and calming place to be for patients.
Ensuring your Practice is Hygienic
When it comes to keeping your practice hygienic, it’s important to ensure that all your furniture and flooring can be kept clean easily.
This means selecting some type of commercial-grade vinyl which is easy to look after and clean.
In addition, if your chairs are upholstered, they should still be able to be wiped down and cleaned easily.
All of the above helps ensure that your practice is hygienic and that it’s easy to maintain and clean.
Cleaning Schedule
Keeping your dental or medical practice hygienic is all about maintaining a regular cleaning schedule.
Generally, it’s best practice to clean waiting areas multiple times per day, and to clean practice and treatment rules after every patient leaves.
There are certain rules and standards to follow depending on the nature of your practice and the regulatory board or governing body it is regulated by.
So, by adhering to a cleaning schedule, you can uphold a high standard of hygiene in your medical or dental practice.
Your Hygiene and Design as a Reflection of your Business
The main thing to remember when it comes to the hygiene and design of your office is that it all reflects on your business.
When patients enter your practice, you need to give them a good first impression with a spotless waiting area which is comfortable and has been recently cleaned.
All of this will mean your patients are more likely to trust your practice, which in turn means they’re more likely to come back and recommend you on.
Making your Practice Comfortable for Employees
As important as it is to ensure your practice is comfortable for patients, it’s also essential that it’s comfortable for employees, too.
Often, people in the medical and dental industry can suffer from back problems due to uncomfortable seating and other equipment. That’s where ergonomic, comfortable seating is so important, especially if your employees spend a good amount of the day sitting down when working with clients – as is the case in the dental industry.
By providing comfortable seating and equipment for employees, your levels of employee retention will be higher, and employees are likely to be more productive at work.
Feedback from Patients and Employees
When it comes to the comfort and hygiene levels of your medical or dental practice, it’s important to regularly get feedback from both patients and employees.
This is because you might not spot certain details which your employees and patients will, from areas missed during cleaning to old or broken furniture which needs to be replaced.
In addition, by checking in with patients and employees regularly, they’ll feel a lot more cared for and looked after – and by doing so, you can show them their opinions matter.
How to Ensure your Medical or Dental Practice is Hygienic and Welcoming
So, we’ve looked into some of the ways in which you can make your medical or dental practice as hygienic and welcoming as possible, from keeping a proper cleaning schedule and using cleanable furniture and flooring, to having friendly staff and relaxing paint and furniture colours to ensure your clients are comfortable and relaxed.
