<p>The “What irks you” thread made me think of this; what do you love and hate in your doctor’s waiting room? </p>
<p>My orthopedist has about 5 magazines and 20-30 people in the waiting room. I bring a book with me when I go, but many people don’t and the wait is long. They have recently added a flat panel TV that runs some news program. My Gyn has a TV, but it runs information about his practice. He does have tons of magazines, although some are out dated; does it really take that long for someone to check the magazines weekly and trash the really outdated issues? The ENT’s office has no magazines or TV, but that is ok because the lighting stinks and you couldn’t read if you wanted too!!</p>
<p>I am trying to decide what my dream waiting room would have; although if I could get in and out of the office in a timely manner, I wouldn’t care what was in the waiting room!! Actually I think my vet has the best waiting room of the bunch; he has a large screen TV on the Food Network, recent good magazines, short wait time if any, and they offer you bottled water or soda when you walk in the door.</p>
<p>I always hate when I am at the doctor’s and all the magazines are health related. That’s not what I want to read while I wait. I want something trivial like People magazine.</p>
<p>Kids’ orthodontist always has a movie showing (Disney or Pixar of course), a tree sculpted up the wall and across the ceiling, couple of video games, and a little of everything in the magazines. The chairs are like movie theatre seats. </p>
<p>My Dr office has some sculptures, water fountains, soothing wall colors and a really cute dog that has the run of the place. </p>
<p>If I have to sit in a waiting room, either one of these is pretty nice…particularly those movie theatre seats.</p>
<p>I always make sure I bring my own reading material. I think I’m getting weird in my old age - I don’t want to flip through magazines that other “sick” people may have been reading. I think it’s coming from working at home and not being around many people anymore and I haven’t been “sick” lately. I like it that way. I’ve stopped shaking hands too.
My doctor’s office has a huge saltwater aquarium that is so relaxing. Yhey also offered bottled water and coffee/tea. They used to have a separate playroom for kids but have since removed it.<br>
I would prefer to go in and out as quick as possible.</p>
<p>I like a doctor’s office where the waiting room is small and mostly empty and they have five or six private treatment rooms, where a competent assistant gets you settled, finds out relevant info (current meds, blood pressure, requests for prescriptions, etc.), and then you wait no more than ten minutes to see your doctor while you choose from car magazines, sports magazines, People, Vogue, and remodeling magazines.</p>
<p>And yes, I have such a doctor.</p>
<p>The only change I would make would be a white board where I could write down all the questions that occur to me while I’m waiting—although these days I put them in the Notes section of my iPhone.</p>
<p>I have one doctor who plays a Christian station with both songs and sermons. At my first visit I told her I’m not a Christian and that I found the station to be inappropriate for a workplace. She seemed surprised but thanked me. For the next few visits it was still on that station but then they changed office managers and now it’s just regular music.</p>
<p>If I could find a doctor with the following in their waiting room, I’d be their patient for life; clean, nice lighting, comfortable furniture, variety of reading material, regular updates when the doctor is running late and either soft or no music.</p>
<p>Dream doctor’s office should have little couches so you can nap while you wait. And wait.</p>
<p>If not, they should have a little cappuccino machine (a real one, no pods) or a place where you can make your own smoothie. I’ll pay extra. </p>
<p>I can dream, but I would just like to have less of those experiences that drain you so utterly that every last bit of energy has been wrung out of your body. Waiting rooms so crowded that you have to sit rigidly upright to avoid invading someone else’s space. Waits that go on forever, and they make you pay your co-pay in advance so you’re trapped. Ghastly heat. Oh, people talking loudly into their cell phones. I don’t want to leave, needing to strangle something to regain my equilibrium. Just let me nap through the wait and I’ll be fine.</p>
<p>I work in a building that houses several health clinics/offices, lab, etc. We have one main waiting room for all the offices (as opposed to individual waiting room in the family med office, ob/gyn, etc.). They renovated it a few years ago and made it more “comfy” - some individual chairs, but also loveseats, couches, etc. I often walk through this area and see people sprawled out on the sofas! Laying down or sitting sideways with feet up on the couch - yep, they ARE taking a nap! </p>
<p>(I don’t think this was the administrations intent, but now we have LOTS of waiting room furniture that looks very “lived in”. )</p>
<p>This describes my dentist’s waiting room to a T.</p>
<p>What I hate about my Dr.'s office is that the chairs in the waiting room(s) are very, very uncomfortable and the fact that it’s very hard to predict which door the nurse will come to when she calls your name: the physical design of the waiting room(s) is just awful. Looks
kind of like this:</p>
<p>
------------------door---
| |
| |
| |
| | receptionist's
| \ desk behind
| \ a set of
| \ glass panels
-------------outside ------------------
door | |
| door
| door
| |
---------------------------
<p>My biggest pet peeve in doctor’s waiting rooms is office staff who carry on personal phone conversations loudly enough to be heard by the waiting patients, or staff who are talking among themselves about personal matters. As long as the staff is working, and trying to serve their patients, I can put up with about anything.</p>
<p>The biggest thing I want in a waiting room is cleanliness. My insurance now requires me to go to a free-standing lab for my various frequent tests, and I always leave wanting to go home and take a shower. Perhaps it is the intense traffic there all day long but the room, the chairs, the magazines are all worn and grubby. Combined with the obvious illnesses of the manby waiting patients, I am so afraid of catching something!</p>
<p>My dentist has a very nice, very clean waiting room. It is very small, only about five seats, but it’s really the nicest one I use regularly. They have all the current magazines, that day’s newspaper, some interesting books, the past few years of our high school yearbook. I never mind waiting there. </p>
<p>They also have a superclean restroom and nice samples to give away.</p>
<p>What would I like to see in a doctor’s waiting room? Very few, if any, patients waiting, lots of hand sanitizer dispensers, clear signs about covering coughs and sneezes, and posters explaning benefits of frequent hand washing (with directions to the nearest bathroom). I’m not a total germaphobe, but I prefer not to touch magazines in a doctor’s waiting room. :)</p>
<p>My ENT’s office is one of those that serves the whole building, so it is very large and they have about 6 magazines, they are all golf magazines, and they are all at least 2 years old.</p>
<p>What I love about my ENT office is the woman who was there the last time I was there who when the nurse came out and announced that the doctor was running 45 minutes late yelled, “Then I hope he’s down a the news stand, cause I already read all the golf crap I can stand.”</p>
I think it’s coming from working at home and not being around many people anymore and I haven’t been “sick” lately. I like it that way. I’ve stopped shaking hands too.