The average doctor sees 11-20 patients each day. That works out to almost 25 minutes for each patient, assuming an 8-hour workday. Since a doctor's biggest priorities are patient health and comfort, a peaceful environment is a must.

This raises an interesting question. How do you create the best environment for your patients? It's all a matter of decoration.

Several medical design trends are taking over the world of healthcare, and changing the experiences of doctors and patients alike. We'll discuss this exciting new design in health and how to implement it in your practice here.

Natural Light

Humans are diurnal creatures, which means we thrive during the day. With this in mind, it might be no surprise that people exposed to natural light tend to be happier and healthier on average than those who aren't. 

Natural light does more than keep people healthy. It also helps them get healthy. Patients in hospital rooms with natural light recovered faster than patients in rooms without it.

Recovery is one part of medicine. Another major part is admittance. Natural light has a calming effect that can make your patients' wait time a lot easier. 

Modular Construction

Most of us remember a time when we were little and constructing tiny buildings and machines from blocks or toy bricks. You could build entire skyscrapers just by making a bunch of square rooms and stacking them on top of each other.

The 21st century is taking this concept to a whole new level and revolutionizing medical office design. The concept of modular construction allows structures to be built quickly by laying out standardized wings and rooms and connecting them to larger buildings. 

Modular buildings are a lot better for the environment. Building them indoors eliminates the risk of weather damage. Plus having standardized designs means that the amount of materials needed is far more predictable. Altogether, this cuts construction waste by over 80%.

Embracing Technology

The most comfortable place a patient can be is in their own home, and with the advent of telemedicine we can treat them there. Technology can also help doctors behind the scenes by making and storing medical records.

The ease of creating and storing records makes medicine safer and more efficient. The idea of doctors having messy handwriting is so cliched, it's become a joke.

However, handwriting, misinterpreted short-hand and other mistakes do happen, and mistakes in medicine can be deadly. Digital record-keeping eliminates this by making a patient's information easy to retrieve and understand.

The Role of Design in Health

The medical world might seem like the last place where design would be relevant, but there is design in health. We've discussed a few of the ways that design trends are influencing medicine here, but there's always more to learn.

You can learn more about design, particularly how it relates to medicine by reading our blog. If you're a practicing physician, dentist, pediatrician, or other medical professional in need of a new office layout, we can help.

We'd be happy to design the perfect office space for you. You can see some of our work in our portfolio.