• Hero Banner
  • ACVCACVC
  • DVM 360
  • Fetch DVM 360Fetch DVM 360
DVM 360
dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care
dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care
By Role
AssociatesOwnersPractice ManagerStudentsTechnicians
Subscriptions
dvm360 Newsletterdvm360 Magazine
News
All News
Association
Breaking News
Education
Equine
FDA
Law & Ethics
Market Trends
Medical
Products
Recalls
Regulatory
Digital Media
dvm360 LIVE!™
Expert Interviews
The Vet Blast Podcast
Medical World News
Pet Connections
The Dilemma Live
Vet Perspectives™
Weekly Newscast
dvm360 Insights™
Publications
All Publications
dvm360
Firstline
Supplements
Top Recommended Veterinary Products
Vetted
Clinical
All Clinical
Anesthesia
Animal Welfare
Behavior
Cardiology
CBD in Pets
Dentistry
Dermatology
Diabetes
Emergency & Critical Care
Endocrinology
Equine Medicine
Exotic Animal Medicine
Feline Medicine
Gastroenterology
Imaging
Infectious Diseases
Integrative Medicine
Nutrition
Oncology
Ophthalmology
Orthopedics
Pain Management
Parasitology
Pharmacy
Surgery
Toxicology
Urology & Nephrology
Virtual Care
Business
All Business
Business & Personal Finance
Buying or Selling a Practice
Hospital Design
Leadership & Personal Growth
Personnel Management
Practice Finances
Practice Operations
Technology
Wellbeing & Lifestyle
Continuing Education
Conferences
Live Conferences
Conference News
Conference Proceedings
Resources
CBD in Pets
Contests
Veterinary Heroes
Partners
Spotlight Series
Team Meeting in a Box
Toolkit
Top Recommended Veterinary Products
Vet to Vet
  • Contact Us
  • Fetch DVM360 Conference
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy
  • Do Not Sell My Information
  • About Us

© 2023 MJH Life Sciences and dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care. All rights reserved.

Advertisement
By Role
  • Associates
  • Owners
  • Practice Manager
  • Students
  • Technicians
Subscriptions
  • dvm360 Newsletter
  • dvm360 Magazine
  • Contact Us
  • Fetch DVM360 Conference
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy
  • Do Not Sell My Information
  • About Us
  • MJHLS Brand Logo

© 2023 MJH Life Sciences™ and dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care. All rights reserved.

The organized hospital (yes, it is possible)

June 8, 2020
Heather E. Lewis, AIA, NCARB, AAA
Supplements, Hospital Design360 June 2020, Volume 1, Issue 1

Your veterinary practice may not be cluttered (or maybe it is), but that doesn’t mean it’s organized. Take these tips and make your space more efficient, attractive and tranquil.

Like a lot of people, I have embraced the decluttering movement in my own life, and I shared numerous ideas for decluttering veterinary hospitals in a dvm360 article on the topic.

Decluttering can be very helpful and a great place to start, but decluttering in itself does not create a great place for work. Let’s tackle the fundamentals of reorganizing your veterinary workspace so that it is inherently beautiful and functional.

Think hospitality in client waiting areas

If we replace the word “hospital” with the word “hospitality,” we can envision better client waiting experiences. The current trend is to make waiting rooms smaller yet more comfortably furnished, and to use most client-allocated square footage in the exam rooms. Thus, the waiting area is for purposeful and intentional waiting, and wants to have a hotel-lobby feel, rather than the more typical airport-terminal feel.

To continue with the hospitality atmosphere, the front desk should be beautiful to behold, decluttered and spare, and should feature artwork, signage, color and lighting, and nothing else. The client should not be looking at files, piles of paper, knickknacks from vendors, unnecessary signs and pamphlets, etc. A clean desk is a much better advertisement for excellent medicine and customer service, as it places nothing between the reception staff and the clients.

Advertisement

Rein in retail

Retail is notoriously junky. If you do choose to offer retail, be fastidious about the design of the shelving to display the goods properly. Restock from a nearby closet or from the stockroom frequently to prevent piling and using retail as de facto storage. You should not have more than one or two of any given item in the retail area at a time.

Contain your pharmacy

By their nature, pharmacy areas are cluttered. To counter this inevitability, the best pharmacy designs have open or glass-fronted shelving so every item can be seen. It is best to confine all pharmacy items to one space for best inventory control practices. A self-contained pharmacy is also easier to keep organized than one that flows amoeba-like into other parts of the hospital.

Prioritize point-of-use storage

In the working portions of the hospital, one of the effective techniques of keeping a space tidier and more functional is to purposefully store items right where they are used. This seems simple until you realize that most hospitals are not really designed for this type of convenient storage. In our office, we pay careful attention to three types of point-of-use storage:

  • Over-cage cubbies. These are so useful for towels, fluid pumps and other items that are needed for patient care.
  • At the treatment table. Another great place for open cubbies above, and drawers below, is right at the treatment table. Having gauze, gloves and other supplies within easy reach of where you’re working is efficient and effective. We keep other surrounding cabinets in the treatment area closed to reduce visual clutter.
  • Equipment parking spaces. If you’re using a piece of equipment in a space, it should be parked in a designated spot in the same space. For example, dental carts should be kept in an assigned place adjacent to the dental table.

Design your staff areas to look clean

Places where your staff are relaxing or eating should be sanitary and clean. Use closed cabinetry and provide adequate storage so counters remain clear. Use cool colors such as greys and blues, which look cleaner than creams, yellows and browns. Provide windows to the outside, which are calming and allow for natural daylight. Provide cleanable materials on seating, tables, floors and counters so that everything can remain spotless.

When in doubt, line it up

This idea is more about creating visual order than any physical organization, but it is pure magic. We use this technique as often as possible. Align windows internally and externally. Align wall protection with countertops. Align room finishes in the same space. Align photos on a wall. In addition to calming your mind, aligning items can have functional benefits as well.

Summary

The benefits of tidy and visually ordered medical environments are just now being studied. I believe this direction of study will change our world in ways we can’t yet even imagine. For example, at Mercy Medical Center in Oklahoma, after decluttering and reorganizing the spaces at the nurses’ stations, nurses save a measured 21 hours per year that would previously have been spent looking for a stapler!

It’s time to liberate yourself from the tyranny of disordered workspaces. Your clients will love a purposeful and tasteful clutter-free space. You will love having items where you need them. Your staff will love saving time, and they will be more relaxed in spaces that are easy to maintain and clean.

Heather Lewis, AIA, NCARB, is a partner at Animal Arts, an architecture firm in Boulder, Colorado and frequent Hospital Design 360 conference speaker. She's a lighting geek and a (seriously) devoted advocate of minimizing pets' stress and anxiety during their veterinary visits. She has designed practices and shelters that range in size from 1,200 to 110,000 square feet. During grad school (as a break from architorture) she trained miniature horses to pull carts!

download issueDownload Issue: Hospital Design360 June 2020

Related Content:

Hospital DesignMedicalPractice OperationsPractice OperationsOwnersRolesHospital Design360 June 2020
Can our Pride panel answer these LGBTQ+ trivia questions?
Can our Pride panel answer these LGBTQ+ trivia questions?
Creating inclusive spaces for the LGBTQ+ community in vet med
Creating inclusive spaces for the LGBTQ+ community in vet med
Happy Pride Month, Hill's launches Prescription Diet ONC Care, and more
Happy Pride Month, Hill's launches Prescription Diet ONC Care, and more

Advertisement

Latest News

Humanimal Trust joins World Federation for Animals

News wrap-up: This week’s headlines, plus Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine presents Temple Grandin, PhD, MS, with an honorary degree

Can our Pride panel answer these LGBTQ+ trivia questions?

Creating inclusive spaces for the LGBTQ+ community in vet med

View More Latest News
Advertisement