When you’re running a doctors surgery, your emphasis needs to be on helping people. The entire practice needs to be geared towards providing the best environment for patients. Too many surgeries these days seems too sterile, intimidating and dull. A lot of them are in need of a makeover, and they seem pretty miserable and uninspiring.
You need to make sure yours is bright, vibrant and inviting. If people have to visit the doctors it’ll often be because there’s something wrong with them. They might be unwell, or they’re having a check up and they’re nervous. Older patients tend to need to go more because they have more health issues. They can often get confused or upset. It’s your duty and responsibility to make them feel better and keep them at ease. Patients need to feel comfortable and relaxed when they go to the doctors. And this doesn’t happen often enough. Well, with these tips you’ll help to make your surgery more inviting and people oriented.
Provide Entertainment
This doesn’t mean you need to provide live music or stand up comedy! It just means there should be something to keep patients busy while they wait. The waits in doctors surgeries can often be quite a while. People need something to do so they don’t get bored or agitated with the wait. Having books and magazines on standby is a good idea, and most surgeries do this. But many of them have out of date issues that people have no interest in reading. Try to keep your selection current and relevant. Also, try to have a play area for infants and young children. This way parents who come in will be able to keep their children amused.
Provide Information
One of the best ways to improve your surgery and to make sure it’s aimed at patients is to provide relevant information. One of the major frustrations people face is the lack of access to pertinent information. Often this is because the information isn’t displayed well. You can fix this in quite a few ways. For one thing, the design and layout of the practice can be changed to allow you to display information better. You can use leaflet dispensers to hold your leaflets. This gives you organization and displays information in a neat and attractive way. If people see leaflets and brochures displayed in a dispenser, they’re often more likely to take one. It makes the information more visible and makes it seem more important.
Always Be Friendly
Try to remember that a lot of the patients you get in might be elderly or distressed. For this reason, it’s important to make sure you’re always friendly and helpful. The patients might be looking to you for comfort or guidance. If people become upset or frustrated they might try to take it out on you. Try to remember that it’s not personal, they’re just upset. Try to remain calm, professional and friendly at all times. This will improve the mood and attitude inside the surgery and will make people feel more comfortable.
Work on Efficiency
Perhaps the best way to make your surgery people oriented is to work on efficiency. The biggest frustration people have when they visit the doctors is having to wait ages to be seen. Sometimes it’s difficult to cut down on this because appointments do run over their allotted time. But, if you all work together as a team, with good communication, you can ensure the surgery run in a more efficient way.
Be the first to reply