Perfecting My Business

A waiting room should be a place of comfort and offer mild entertainment for your patients, especially if they're waiting to be seen for a medical appointment or concern. If you have a waiting room and it's not a very inspiring space, this can go against your medical practice in ways you didn't think of before. For example, a simple wait while entertained with a magazine or television show as a distraction feels like a shorter wait for a client than the same wait time in a room with no distractions, which isn't a good thing.

Should you put a TV in your waiting room? Or would this cause more of a negative distraction in your waiting area? Here's a guide to help you decide if this is the route for your needs.

Your wait times are noticeable

The average tolerable wait time for a customer varies, but this is clear: the longer patients have to wait, the more dissatisfied they are with their service. You cannot control how long appointments will take and other unforeseeable things, but your patients don't know this and unless you take measures to make them as comfortable as possible while they wait or give them enough distractions to take their minds away from the time, you risk losing patients to other clinics.

While adding a television to your waiting room won't shorten wait times, it may make those wait times easier to endure. This way, you can have happier or at least more distracted and comfortable patients and better client retention.

Your patients vary in age

Some patients are content to sit and wait because they are old enough to entertain themselves via their phones, a book, or other hobbies. Others, like younger children, have a harder time sitting still and can themselves become an unwelcome distraction in your clinic's waiting room. This puts other patients at unease and can make normal wait times feel even longer.

At any rate, these younger patients can be easily entertained by a television playing their favorite cartoons or educational shows, even if it's on mute. Consider a television that shows nature shows or other shows that can entertain everyone in your waiting room and not just children so everyone can be content. Keep all remotes and the volume buttons out of reach of patients so you are in control of these things at all times.  

If you want to purchase a TV for your waiting room, consider a flat screen TV, such as the Supersonic 32 in D LED widescreen HDTV.