The needs of a clinic, hospital, surgery, or any other healthcare environment will always be to provide the best care possible, and this concerns having the essential equipment on hand. Without medicine, machines, stretchers, monitors, and surgical tables, the healthcare services people need wouldn’t be possible. However, there is another element that healthcare practices need to think about, and that is comfort.
While those who come to the healthcare environment are looking for care, the emotional state that they likely find themselves in is going to be quite distressed, meaning that cultivating a space where they can find a degree of relative calm is going to go a long way towards improving their care. This is how you can do this.
Why Focus on Comfort?
Part of the reason for comfort is because of the link between mental health and physical health. A prospective patient who is incredibly stressed will be at a greater risk when it comes to physical ailments too. When looked at in that way, it’s easier to see the connection between comfort and care and why the former needs to simply be an extension of the latter. If you craft an environment where they can come into and feel calm, they’ll know that they’re in safe hands, and while it might not completely get rid of any anxiety that might be feeling, that’s natural, any positive step in the right direction can make a difference.
Prove You Are a Responsible Professional
A way that you can make them feel as though they’re in safe hands is to simply prove that you’re the right professional for the job. It’s an ‘actions speak louder than words’ situation, and the only way you can prove this to them is by providing them with the care they need while conducting yourself professionally and communicatively throughout the experience. Having the right medical supplies is a must, then, and that can increase your confidence – something that is more palpable and apparent to your audiences than you might expect. Ensuring that your clinic or other healthcare environment has a strong connection with the right medical delivery services can mean that this worry is erased from your mind, allowing you to focus on delivering the best care possible.
The Waiting Room
To many people who will be visiting these kinds of environments, the waiting room is perhaps the most potentially anxiety-inducing of them all. This is a time when they’re waiting for their diagnosis or healthcare, going through all of their own fears in their head as they have no choice but to stew and find some way to occupy themselves before they see the professional. There is little hope of completely removing these anxieties from the minds of your visitors, but you can at least help them to feel safe and calm in the space that you provide. The waiting room should be quiet, calm, light, and peaceful. Various seats, perhaps in different configurations so they can be in a closed-off or open space, might be a good way to structure it. Natural light and house plants can introduce a sense of calm in the same way they might in working spaces, making them natural picks for decorations. Reading materials are also common in these areas as a way of occupying the minds of your visitors, giving them something to peruse and read through while they wait. This also gives you a chance to convey some genuine medical information that might be of value through leaflets or newsletters.
There is certainly a standard when it comes to medical waiting rooms, and a certain sense of consistency pervades between them, regardless of where you go. You might find that using this as a template is a good place to begin, but even if you plan on innovating, it’s worth understanding why this is the case before you make any massive changes. After all, a change might sound good in theory, but in practice, it might provoke more unrest than you initially suspect. The design of something like a waiting room can feel simple, but there’s often much more thought and care behind that simplicity than is immediately apparent by looking at them.
Bedside Manner
This is a term you might have heard applied many times before, but it’s necessary in this profession to not underestimate just how important it is. When in the hands of a healthcare professional, it’s easy for patients to feel very vulnerable for any number of reasons, and this is once again an opportunity to reinforce the idea that they’re in safe hands. Acting professionally and being sensitive to the emotions and needs of the patient without being too familiar, emotional, or distant sounds like a lot to balance, especially while doing the job that is expected of someone in their position. It’s not easy, but the important thing is to try and see it from the patient’s point of view. To the professional, this likely becomes a mundane situation typical of any kind of employment, making it easy to forget the patient is under duress. Taking the time to listen to them and hear what they say is not only important for understanding exactly what the problem is but also for ensuring that the experience they’re having is comfortable.
This once again brings back the idea of comfort and care being deeply intertwined. Here, that comfort can provide the professional with a greater degree of knowledge, allowing the best care that they can provide to follow. A healthcare experience that prioritizes comfort is one that might be more easily recommendable to friends and family members once the patient leaves. Good word-of-mouth marketing is important for any business, and being known for being able to provide a level of understanding can go a long way in an area that many people find difficult or uncomfortable, especially if they’re struggling to open up about what they’re going through, to begin with.
Discretion and Confidentiality
That’s another part of the patient experience that can be difficult to accommodate when you’re so used to dealing with medical matters in a daily, matter-of-fact kind of way. This is sensitive, as is all of the information that you’re being provided with. Naturally, data being sensitive is something that all kinds of businesses have to come to terms with in more modern times, but when patients struggle to talk about what they’re going through with even their closest loved ones, the position of trust falls to you – the professionals.
This might feel natural enough; it is your help that they require, after all. However, the way in which you respond to this is important. Just as bedside manner is important in healthcare, that similar level of tact and sensitivity should be plain to see throughout the whole experience – interacting with receptionists, notifications, alerts, and phone calls should all feel consistent. That way, when interacting with your business, your patients aren’t simply thinking about whether they’ll be talking to someone who is more understanding than another. Instead, they’ll associate that idea of understanding with your entire brand, which can be great for getting more patients.
Additionally, knowing that you’re very serious about treating patient files and information with care and security can do a lot to assure them that they’re dealing with people who know what they’re doing. It can even encourage some people who are unsure about coming forward and divulging something that they’ve been struggling with for a long time to speak up about it.