The New Waiting Room Design by Cheryl Janis

Welcome to the new world of health care design, where patients are demanding an exceptional experience from their favorite dentists and are willing to dig deep into their pockets to pay for it. Research tells us that in health care practices today, patients now crave more attention to their states of mind and emotions and to things in the environment that sustain them.¹

Baby boomers and millennials, now the largest two living generations in the U.S., are affecting health care design in big ways.² Boomers are demanding five-star hotel quality from their dentists and physicians who don't inhibit clinical staff from doing their jobs. Millennials, on the other hand, when asked how they spend their time in the waiting room, report using their smartphones and looking at artwork and decor.^3,4

How then, does a dentist with all the overwhelming amount of day-to-day pressures stay profitable in today's health care environment? The following three easy do-it-yourself design solutions respond to these trends while increasing your bottom line.

1. Arrange your waiting room like an inviting living room
When you design your waiting room like an inviting living room, you instantly remind patients they are "at home" the moment they step into your office.

Science tells us that familiarity decreases the stress response. Imagine the look of relief on your patients' faces when instead of walking into your waiting room with hard chairs lined up in rows, they're greeted with comfortable upholstered furniture like a medium- to firm-cushioned sofa and inviting chairs.⁵

Another design secret to creating a cozy living room vibe in your office is to balance any rectilinear shapes in your furniture and decor with curved ones. Studies report that people are far more likely to consider a room beautiful when it is flush with curves rather than full of straight lines.⁶

Other studies show that viewing objects with sharp elements—like pointy couches, side tables and the like—activates the fear response in the amygdala of the brain.⁷ This means choosing curved furniture and design elements in your office like side, end and coffee tables with rounded edges, and pillows that have curved patterns instead of square or gridlike ones.

2. Layer your lighting with a variety of light sources
Science shows that equally lit spaces, or environments in which illuminance is uniform and does not change or vary, have been perceived to resemble a cloudy day, and can induce depression.⁸ So, you know those dental offices that display a single overhead fluorescent light fixture? Sure, they light up the entire waiting room evenly, but they can also make your patients feel depressed and nervous.

Overhead fluorescent lighting tends to cause glare, flatten surfaces and give a very even texture, increasing that antiseptic quality often associated with hospitals and traditional medical settings.

Instead, layer your lighting with options such as floor lamps, table lamps, task lighting, wall sconces, spotlights and mood lighting. You don't have to use all of these—just make sure you're not depending on a single lighting source for the entire room.

We humans love layered artificial lighting in rooms because our body clocks naturally respond to the shadows and varying degrees of light in the same way we respond to the changes in natural light throughout the day. Layered lighting creates that instant, cozy vibe you're looking for.

3. Intelligent artwork changes everything
One of the biggest design secrets to creating a waiting room that keeps patient retention rates high and referral business booming is evidence-based art—the use of published research when selecting artwork for health care settings.

Science tells us that when people view scenes that are universally preferred—a beautiful vista, a sunset, a grove of trees—the nerve cells in that opiate-rich pathway at the base of the brain that leads from the visual cortex to the parahippocampal area become active.⁹ It's as if when you're looking at a beautiful scene, your brain gives you a morphine high! Not only that, but as color, depth and movement are added, more waves or nerve cells become active farther along this gradient.¹

Now, imagine filling your waiting room with exquisite high-quality images of lakes, gardens, beaches and other colorful art photos of nature. What you want are images that make you and your patients feel immersed in the scene, not abstract or flat-feeling images.

Don't Run Too Hot—or Cold
After five minutes of sitting in my dentist's waiting room, I noticed my palms suddenly feeling moist and the muscles in my chest tightening.

"Why am I feeling this way?" I wondered.

I gave my surroundings a closer look and in an instant, I got it. The color palette of the room was created using all warm colors—yellow walls, a coffee-colored sofa, taupe chairs, red and orange rugs mixed with saffron yellow and peach-colored artwork, warm wood trim and wood doors.

Colors have a temperature (measured in Kelvin), and the warmer the color, the higher the temperature. The higher the temperature, the higher the anxiety levels are provoked in people. The more sensitive the nervous system, the more intensely your patients will feel these responses. The opposite—too many cool tones in a room painted in cool white and pale grays—can leave patients feeling a flat, sterile emotional energy that is both uncomfortable and unwelcoming. The solution is to balance your warm colors with cool ones.

This means that if you paint your walls a warm color, bring in furniture in the cooler family of colors. And if your walls are painted in cooler tones, then bring in warm flooring and furnishings. Mix up the color palette of your design elements with things like plants and nature landscape photography with blue oceans or lavender flowers.

References
1. Sternberg, Esther M. Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being. Belknap, 2010.
2. Barr, Paul. Hospitals and Health Networks, 2014.
3. Eagle, Amy. "Boomers Put New Demands on Health Care Design. Health Facilities Management," 2014.
4. Clinic 20XX Report. CADRE. 2015.
5. Sternberg, Esther M. The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health & Emotions.
W.H. Freeman, 2001.
6. Jaffe, Eric."Why Our Brains Love Curvy Architecture," Co.Design. 2013.
7. Vartanian, Oshin, et.al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, "Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance in architecture," 2013.
8. Gordon, Gary. Interior Lighting for Designers. 2003.
9. Case study by Professor Irving Biederman as reported by Dr. Esther Sternberg, Healing Spaces:
The Science of Place and Well-Being.