Light colored carpet is a poor flooring choice for heavily trafficked areas. If you add in the difficulty sanitizing it compared to solid surface, it’s an even worse choice. Sharp corners are also an awful choice—who is making these choices?
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The worst was when I took my mom to the ortho surgeon after her hip surgery. The exam table was static; it couldn’t be raised or lowered to allow her to get on it. A little step at the end is meaningless when you can’t step. Utterly ridiculous.
Her PCPs outer office was so crowded with chairs that I could barely maneuver her wheelchair through it.
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The folks designing offices would do well to have a focus group or two of office staff (nurses and assistants and docs) plus caregivers and patients to make intelligent design choices.
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I don’t go this doctor anymore, but one thing I would change about their office is the tv that shows medical/healthy living talk shows (including Dr. OZ) . They also always had a volume all the way up. It was so annoying. I did like the doctor, so that made up for the obnoxious tv. I had to change doctors due to my insurance changing. I like my new Doctor’s office. They have an aquarium and a tv that just plays aerial views of different places (like Hawaii, Italy, etc) with no sound.
My dentist’s office is plain with pictures of flowers on the walls, and they play classical music and smooth jazz in the waiting room.
When I go to visit my stepdad, I take him to some of his various doctor appointments. All the offices are very nice and accessible. And all the staff seems to be nice and professional. The only thing I didn’t like was when we were visiting around Christmas and I took my stepfather to his opthalmologist (sp?). The front of the building was in the shade, so the snow and ice hadn’t melted (he lives in an area that gets snow, but then it gets into the 50’s and it melts the snow) and the parking spaces and sidewalk in front of the building were solid ice. I know that’s not the office’s fault, but I did let them know how bad it was and they were going to call the company that owns their building.
When I was in the ER of a big teaching hospital in Brooklyn last year, they had the tv on but no closed captions! Likewise in the waiting rooms of doctors’ offices. Every time I have an appointment, I think that I should make a suggestion but have not figured out to whom to make it.
In the ER, the resident turned off the TV for me. What a relief!
Was the TV showing something that people in the ER might not really want to watch, such as a wave of COVID-19 new variants overloading hospitals?
Big suburban health system that bought up little clinics. There is an arms race among big clinic systems for who can provide the most posh experience. The new clinics (and remodeled clinics) are designed by professional design firms.
It was showing a movie on Hulu–The Old Man, I think, which had been released recently. If I hadn’t been feeling so awful, I might have watched. But I couldn’t hear it well, and there were no subtitles.
Somebody mentioned a picture stuck up in an MRI. I’ve had many MRI’s where there is a periscope mirror over my head that lets me see the ceiling of the room–makes if feel less constrictive.
My doctor used to have TV in the waiting room. It seems like whenever I was there (usually late afternoon) it was set on Family Feud, which drove me nuts with their double/triple entendre/filthy answers! If not that, it was tuned to a 24 hr news stations whose politics drove me up a wall. If I only didn’t respect the “DO not change the channel” sign…
I’ve had to see an orthopedist regularly, and if I’m the only one in the waiting room (which is often the case), I ask them to mute the TV which is always tuned to NY1. They have the captions on already, and I can’t understand why the receptionist would want to hear the same local news over and over.
I always loved the idea behind the TV-B-Gone — a one-button remote that cycles through all TV manufacturers’ “power off” codes, so you can turn off any TV in a public place just by clicking the button. I never got one, and have always wondered how effective they are, but I’ve certainly wished for one many many times over the years.
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The auto dealership had two waiting rooms–one had CNN and the other had Fox news.
One of my dad’s doctors office had ceiling light panels that had a big fishing scene in it so when you laid back on the examine table you could look at that.
My dentist has cool mobiles hanging off the ceiling. I find it soothing.
Now you know the doctor’s politics…
Seems like if you want actual news, you would not want to play the 24 hour “news” stations that are more opinions than news.
My dentist’s wife designed his office (fairly large practice). She made it like a cabin–fireplace, country furniture, a welcome bear. Soothing greens and browns throughout the entire office and in the exam rooms. Every exam room had a window in front of the chair and they planted a tree in front of each one. Good sound proofing. Carpet in reception but vinyl in exam rooms. It was very well thought out. No TV at all but plenty of magazines of all types–but they really never kept anyone waiting long.
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I guess that’s where I sort of lucky. Several on my MDs have older offices, not these sleek modern ones that seem to generate more of the complaints.
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My pet peeves are the failure to join the 21st century: an insistence on faxing things – who, besides doctors’ offices does that? Why can’t I forward down loaded medical records electronically???
And why isn’t there a national system for electronic medical records? Why don’t the systems communicate? One of the main benefits of emr is unavailable.
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I’m sure if we had a hospital space designer here on the group they could explain the reasoning behind some of the choices people are unhappy with. :).
Safety first of course.
In some of the clinics I have worked in, the “blame” for odd furniture placement especially in waiting areas can go to the housekeeping staff. Different staff, different ways you find the space in the morning. Unless a clinic backhouse person (backhouse being anything past the waiting room) comes out and looks over the waiting space daily, the placement of movables in the room might not be ideal.
Here a different wish list item. An easy way to test for strep/flu. If it’s not strep/flu, im happy to wait it out at home. A home test would be fine, and if positive then go to the doctor to repeat, get drugs, etc. But having to go through my above mentioned process just to be tested - spending 1-4 hours waiting and waiting and telling everyone why you’re there, and then having to pay $150 for the process is horrid.
When I was in Myrtle Beach years ago, I once went to the Minute Clinic for something. I loved that. But we don’t have any of those here.
Can you tell younger S texted me this morning thinking he has strep? Argh.
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