Medical Facility Design: 3 Important Tenets

If you're a contractor working on medical facility design, you have your hands full. While there are similarities in creating a hospital or clinic when compared with creating a commercial space, there are many differences as well. There are different emphases when it comes to what is important and what isn't. As a contractor or builder, you'll need to know what to emphasize when it comes to creating an office that is a pleasure to work within as well as a pleasure to visit for a patient. As long as you keep three tenets at the forefront of your mind, you'll be able to create something that will stand the test of real-world practice.

Patient Flow

One of the most important aspects of medical facility design is the concept of patient flow. Confusion in this area leads to a clinic that gives off an unprofessional feel, which is the last thing you want to have. People can overlook unprofessionalism in a retail space. They can overlook it when it comes to government-designed facilities like the DMV. They cannot and will not overlook it in a health clinic. If you're entrusting your health to a clinic, you are going to be looking for things that indicate incompetence, even if it's on a subconscious level. Poor patient flow is one of those things.

Ease of Use

Just as it is important to make sure your medical facility design is easy for a patient to use, you also need to make sure the doctors, nurses, and staff can easily move around as well. This means taking some time and creating a space that is as functional as it is beautiful. In fact, your first mission in any such project should be functionality. Beauty and architectural flourishes should be second, if they even come into the picture at all. Keeping things simple is usually best. People don't choose a clinic based on what it looks like (assuming it doesn't have bars on the windows or some other obvious flaw). Make sure your clinic maximizes efficiency.

Regulations

The difficult thing about medical facility design is that you must not only meet the above two tenets when creating the space, you have to do so in a way that doesn't violate any state regulations. And there will be many. A contractor should be used to working within building regulations, but you may be surprised at how many there are for creating a clinic. Study them carefully and find ways in which they won't keep you from making the best space possible.