Open Treatment Areas Improve Patient Satisfaction

Posted by HJT Design

There are a lot of ways that you can design your dental practice, but one thing you should always consider is the satisfaction of your patients. Believe it or not, but the layout you choose for your practice can have a big impact on patient satisfaction — and one way that you could improve patient satisfaction is by going with an open treatment area.

Reasons to Build an Open Treatment Area

The following are four reasons why you might want to consider going with an open treatment area layout for your dental practice design:

1. You want to avoid smaller treatment rooms – If you’re working with a smaller space in general, then building interior walls can be very constricting. You may not be able to see as many patients at once if you want to build private treatment rooms. Even if you manage to build as many rooms as you need, they may feel more cramped because of all the equipment and furniture that needs to fit in each room. This can make it uncomfortable for dentists and their assistants to work, and can make it even more uncomfortable for patients.
2. You want to improve the flow of traffic – An open space design makes it easy for assistants and hygienists to move from one treatment area to another with little trouble. Remember, putting walls up to build private rooms will also diminish the amount of space in the hallways, which can be problematic depending on the size of your staff. For a practice where dentists, assistants and staff members are constantly moving around from room to room, an open space treatment area is also more efficient since its less likely that you’ll lose track of which patient was put where.
3. You want space available for future equipment – You don’t want to use up all the space that you have in your practice. Not only can this make the entire practice feel cramped (which leads to feelings of discomfort for patients), but you’ll want to have some flexibility to have the space available to store new dental equipment that you may purchase in the future. While your current dental equipment might be fine, you should always consider the fact that additional equipment could help to improve the patient experience in some way.
4. You want patients to see the treatment area – Nobody likes going in for dental surgery even though everyone understands its importance. Leading patients through hallway after hallway lined with closed rooms can be intimidating. Allowing them to see the treatment area can disarm them a bit since there’s no mystery behind it. They can see your staff going about their work in an orderly fashion and your patients getting work done without an issue, which can help to alleviate any tension they might be feeling about their visit.

These are four reasons why an open treatment area could help to improve the satisfaction of your patients. While you might think that an open treatment area would eliminate the privacy that many patients desire, there is a way to remedy this.

You can use cabinetry to divide each patient space while retaining an open area layout. This helps provide visual privacy and can help block a lot of noise as well.

For more advice on remodeling your dental practice in a way that will improve its operation, be sure to contact us at HJT Dental Design Consultants to schedule a consultation today.