Updating Your Patient Waiting Area? 3 Painting Considerations For Medical Practice Owners
Providing a comfortable waiting area is an important goal for medical health care practitioners and anyone who owns or manages a medical practice. One of the components required to provide patient comfort and a low-stress atmosphere is the overall appearance of the room, including the colors and painting techniques used on the walls, ceiling, and woodwork.
If you are preparing to give your medical waiting areas a makeover, here are some important considerations to help ensure that your patients find the space calming and welcoming.
Consider targeted color choices
While many business waiting areas today are designed with bland, neutral colors, such as shades of beige, light tans, and cream, psychology indicates that these colors may be best suited for corporate, financial, or legal waiting areas where the clientele is typically focused on business.
Since medical care facilities are used by people who are dealing with a variety of illnesses, injuries, or health concerns, a warmer, more caring color palette and design can provide a better environment. Colors known to have the calming, reassuring effect needed in a medical waiting area include shades in both the green and blue families, along with complimentary touches of pink, mauve, or lavender to soften the effect.
Consider adding a focus wall
Medical care waiting areas can be less threatening and stressful when they have a focus other than the receptionist's window. By incorporating a focus wall geared to the needs of the patients that use the area, medical care providers can help to increase the level of comfort their patients feel when seated there. Some good ideas for focus walls include:
- a sports-themed wall filled with sporting memorabilia for a sports medicine practice
- a wall that features images of characters from popular children's movies or animals for a pediatrician's office
- a wall that features a relaxing panorama or mural for a mental health professional's office
Instead of a focus wall, medical care providers can also consider choosing to use a combination of lighter and darker tones to provide an attractive, but also reassuring visual pattern for patients who must spend time waiting in their reception areas.
Consider paint durability
Because the waiting areas of busy practices receive heavy traffic, it is also important to consider the durability of any paint that you choose. Discussing your concerns with your commercial painting contractor, including the type and amount of traffic your waiting area will receive, will help to ensure that the paint and application techniques used in your waiting area renovation will continue to add value to your practice for years to come.
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