How fitted healthcare furniture can help hospitals deal with crowding

If you turn on the TV in the morning or scroll through the news on your commute, you’ll know that hardly a day goes by without a feature on the pressures hospitals are facing around the country. While this means that waiting areas and consulting rooms can become crowded, the good news is that these busy areas can be improved with well-designed and intuitive, fitted healthcare furniture in several key ways.

Increase useable space

The worst sight when you enter a hospital reception area is a mass of people vying for a spot near the front desk. A large group of people waiting to check in can create a bottleneck near crucial entrance and exit doors. This crowd can also block nurses who need to call out patients’ names, which further slows down the rate of patient turnover.

With a bespoke reception desk, however, the contact point can be designed to fit the room size and shape. This allows hospital administrators to easily guide patients, and create a designated queuing area that flows naturally. Nursing stations can also be designed for maximum efficiency, helping healthcare workers to move between parts of the hospital with ease, and speed up processing in all departments.

Improve accessibility

In addition to helping accommodate a large number of patients, hospital furniture can also help to create accessible space for all patients. If you are a builder or architect refurbishing healthcare premises, it’s important to remember that the Disability Discrimination Act now dictates that the space must be useable for people of all abilities.

However, well-designed, fitted healthcare furniture can help staff process patients quickly and smoothly, regardless of their physical needs. Whether it’s fitted grab rails in the bathrooms, or desks designed for easy interaction at all height levels, the implementation of intuitive hospital furniture allows for better patient access and the most efficient use of space.

Reduce disease transmission

Crowded waiting areas in hospitals can be at the centre of a large disease outbreak, especially in Accident and Emergency departments that treat a wide range of ailments. The unfortunate nature of hospitals is that many people who visit them are suffering with illness, so the potential for transmission is high.

The bespoke nature of fitted hospital furniture can help to eliminate this risk as it reduces crowding and limits the proximity of patients to each other. Worktops can also be moisture-resistant, and surfaces can be solid and easily sanitised, in order to improve infection control procedures.

Healthcare furniture goes far beyond just taking a seat before seeing the doctor, and offers a means to improve the experience for patients and medical professionals alike.

Fitted healthcare furniture – where to find out more

If you’d like to discuss a fitted healthcare furniture project, please get in touch.

As one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of fitted furniture for hospitals and healthcare facilities, we can design, manufacture and install furniture to meet your individual project requirements. Our Healthcare furniture range is specified for all types of hospital refurbishment and new development projects, from NHS Trust premises to private hospitals. All our furniture is manufactured at our factory in Broadstairs, Kent, here in the UK. Find out more about our range of HTM 63 and HTM 71 compliant healthcare furniture.

Image: CMRF 08/10 OLCHC Photos 28 by CMRF_Crumlin licensed under Creative Commons 4.0