TOP 5 Mistakes in designing your own Clinic and how to avoid the pitfalls.
Designing the layout of your medical practice might seem like a good idea at the time you put pen to paper, but the outcome is not always as beneficial as first thought. As medical clinic builders, we often find that doctors and medical clinic owner’s intentions in designing their own practice is primarily to save costs. We also find that doctors and investors have been dreaming of their own practice for years and have an image in their head of how it will look. Whilst it might seem like a cost saving exercise, it can be fraught with challenges and disappointment.
As a medical practice construction company, we welcome doctors and investors to share their thoughts and aspirations with our design team. This initial input can certainly help relate design ideas to our architects and designers. But what we suggest is to have clear ideas about the design/flow/feel and look, but please consider leaving the detailed design to healthcare design specialists.
So what are the top 5 medical clinic design mistakes?
Mistake # 1 – Ignoring workflow and patient flow planning
Too often we find doctors and investors design from the heart. Often their needs are based on aesthetics and images they might have seen in a magazine or practices they have worked at recently. Whilst this is a great start, we find that most clinic design ideas on paper miss the crucial workflow element. A well laid out healthcare fitout considers the functionality of employee workflow. Ensuring that all spaces have workflow in mind, ensures that each room layout and every desk layout allows employees to perform at their best.
The saying ‘beauty is skin deep’ can be true in medical design. The physical attractiveness of a medical clinic can be lost in translation if the design is substandard. The importance of considering patient flow should be high on the agenda during the design phase. The importance of patients to feel that the process is streamlined is very important for them to remain calm and have a good feeling leaving their appointment.
Poorly laid out medical clinics can result in frustrated staff and patients which in turn can lead to staff and patient attrition. This result can be avoided by allowing healthcare design specialists to design.
Mistake # 2 – Not meeting healthcare regulations or infection control standards
Too often we find that doctors and investors are not up to date on the strict regulations and standards that are required to design and construct a medical clinic that passes the certificate of occupancy first time.
There is an abundance of regulations and design standards that are required to be met when undertaking a medical fit out or construction. From the Building Code, disability access standards, Infection Control regulations, Council requirements, Fire and emergency regulations, electrical and plumbing standards and even Occupational Heath and Safety requirements, there is plethora of legislation and standards to regulate these areas.
Getting any of these things wrong in the design phase will see the project being delayed and contract variations introduced. Costs can add up quickly.
To ensure your project hits the milestones from the start, its often in your best interest to partner with medical fit out companies who understand and specialise in medical design.
Mistake # 3 – Poor Acoustics and Privacy Planning
Often people are feeling anxious and are probably at their most vulnerable whilst attending a medical appointment. Conversations between specialist and patient can be of a private nature. Accordingly, it is critical that walls, doors and ceilings are sound proofed. No patient wishes to hear other patient’s conversation and in reverse do not wish theirs to be overheard. Often, we find that this area is overlooked when a doctor or investor has turned their hand as designer.
Using one small example – The challenge to successfully design a small consult room to ensure sound does not bounce around requires selecting appropriate materials and furniture to soften the echo. The solution is to partner with healthcare design specialists who understands these challenges and can offer solutions during the design phase.
Mistake #4: Overlooking lighting, acoustics, or comfort
One of the biggest mistakes we see when doctors and investors try their hand at design, is selecting materials that look great but are not fit for purpose. The materials are not durable or hygenic for medical environments. Selecting inappropriate domestic grade flooring and joinery is a pitfall that should be avoided at all costs.
It’s important during the design phase to select non-porous surfaces that meet infection control – in particular in treatment and sterilisation rooms. These selections require knowledge to ensure fittings are suitable for a medical environment.
Therefore, if you are considering a medical practice construction, it might be best to leave the deisgn to the experts.
Mistake #5: – Skipping professional project management
Trying to save dollars by not appointing a professional project management company can cost you in the long run.
Running a project without a clear budget for cost control, can have variations and hidden costs add up. Compliance issue, design revisions and construction delays can cost you more than paying for a qualified medical clinic builder.
Further, time delay and oversights can delay a projects completion date which adds to the project cost and lost revenue in a delayed opening date.
Quality control issues and poor communication between stakeholders can be a costly error also. Misunderstandings and errors can multiply quickly.
The solution would be to partner with medical builders Melbourne to ensure qualified project managers are used who bring years of experience in management processes and knowledge.
Conclusion: How working with healthcare design specialists prevents these errors.
The above medical clinic construction tips and tricks on how to avoid pitfalls of designing your own clinic is food for thought. Medical practice construction is a complicated beast and errors can quickly become very costly. Assuming that you have the skills to successfully design a medical clinic from a to z is naïve. We recommend doctors and investors engage medical fit out companies or healthcare design specialists to partner with to avoid the above medical clinic design mistakes.
