My office.
If a healthcare exam room looks more like a living room, would it help a patient to relax? To communicate more freely with a clinician? The space is designed to provide an increasingly comfortable and patient-centered experience, along with a sense of familiarity. Doctors report better flow and efficiency in accessing medical records and supplies, and more comfortable, direct interactions with patients in these exam rooms.
The Evolution of The Examination Office.
Long gone are the glass vials of cotton swabs and tongue depressors — and even the post-exam lollipops. Just as primary care medicine is constantly evolving so is the doctor’s office and the exam room settings many of us will visit throughout our lifetime.
Advancements in technology and medicine, along with new legislative policies, are influencing the way care providers deliver care and ultimately clinic exam room designs. The patient-centered medical home model has encouraged primary care providers to make patients more active leaders of their health plan which will influence the overall functionality and configuration of clinic exam rooms. Specific design qualities discussed include overall size, location of doors and privacy curtains, positioning of exam tables, influence of technology in the consultation area, types of seating, and placement of sink and hand sanitizing dispensers. In addition, future trends of exam room prototypes are presented.
Designing the Future: ORL’s New Office Space Features High-Tech Tools.
There is a general lack of published evidence to support design professionals' design solutions for outpatient exam rooms. Future research should investigate such topics as the location of exam tables and privacy curtains as they relate to patient privacy; typical size and location of consultation table as it relates to patient connection and communication; and placement of sinks and sanitization dispensers as they relate to frequency and patterns of usage.
I believe that today’s healthcare requires the assembly of information from diverse resources and that physicians must recognize their roles as managers of a diverse information stream. My office is designed to manage that flow and optimize it for better patient outcomes. My aim is still to provide compassionate care, and I'm integrating technology toward our central mission.”
My new offices truly expand the services I can offer our patients. Patients have provided positive feedback, because they can more actively participate in their own care in comfortable surroundings. Because the office has a modular design supported by a digital backbone, I expect to be able to accommodate new technology and additional patient requirements easily and efficiently for years to come.”
Futuristic Examination Office.
Patients will be spending some time in that room, so make them feel like your office guest, which is preferable to being treated like a helpless, sick patient. The room does not need to look institutional. Furnish it with warm materials such as wood and acrylic in the architectural details, wood-grain laminates on the desk and storage cabinets, antimicrobial copper such as brass or bronze at the sink, and comfortable but cleanable seating.
This same room that has served as office and consult room can still function as an exam room. You may have an exam table in it, but many specialists don't need them. According to the "Blueprint for the Clinic of the Future" published by The Healthcare Advisory Board (March 28, 2013), "60 percent of the encounters between patients and caregivers do not require an exam table." So make it comfortable, like a living room, to get the patient to open up and tell their caregiver everything they need to know. That said, you can still plan for the typical "institutional needs" such as infection prevention. Use attractive and hospitable sinks made from antimicrobial copper, including brass and bronze, which naturally kills 99.9% of the bacteria that lands on its surface. Mount diagnostic instruments, paper towel holders, soap and disinfectant dispensers onto attractive pieces of equipment rail. Equipment rail allows you to take advantage of the quick-release brackets so that you can clean behind these tools, and even replace them, without damaging the wall. And finally, you can enhance privacy and absorb sound in an attractive way with wall panels. Ecophon for example makes an attractive wall panel design that mounts to the wall, makes the room attractive, and also minimizes the sound that travels between rooms.
