4 Ways to Make Healthcare Offices Less Stressful and More Accommodating

HON Highlights | The Workplace | 6.24.24

The complexities of healthcare have come into sharp focus in recent years, revealing a renewed appreciation of environments that are flexible, adaptable, and resilient when facing new challenges.

Here are four ways to promote a less stressful healthcare setting, one that puts patients at ease and helps practitioners stay focused and less stressed.

1. Beat Burnout with Better Seating

Encouraging physical and emotional well-being at work has become a priority for healthcare providers of all types.

There are several strategies for reducing occupational stress, from mindfulness exercises to more formal support services. But underlying fatigue and distraction also have ergonomic solutions, like HON’s award-winning selection of task chairs. HON’s Ignition 2.0 and Solve support ideal posture—plus pressure point relief—for those who spend a lot of time on their feet.

Abound and Voi workstations can also help by offering both barriers and boundaries needed to maintain focus. Better organization can also lower anxiety—less clutter and more security is always beneficial. The Contain® line of cubby lockers and wardrobes can be configured with keypad or RFID electronic locks—no keys and enhanced security foster peace of mind.

2. Make a Great First Impression

There’s a delicate balance to reducing reception area stress—surroundings should be soothing, but also easy to keep clean. They should be relaxing, but not boring either.

Materials matter! Durable, easily cleanable fabrics and vinyls are perfect for high-traffic reception areas, breakrooms, and wellness spaces. Not only are many of HON’s textiles made with sustainable materials, they’re available in an appealing variety of colors and patterns, making what could potentially be a stressful environment soothing and relaxing.

And speaking of soothe, HON’s Soothe Guest Seating and tables provide patients and family members with comfortable seating in a variety of colors, fabrics, and textures for any healthcare environment, including areas for registration, waiting, or consultation.

And Accommodate seating offers bariatric options with more structure and space for those who need it, making these amenities-driven spaces more inclusive.

Featured products: Ignition, Abound, Soothe

3. Encourage Partnership between Patients And Practitioners

Healthcare relationships are evolving, and so are the spaces where they take place. Exam rooms are appropriate settings for discussions and minor procedures, but they can also add anxiety to the patient’s experience. Empathetic conversations in a less clinical setting can make a measurable difference, for current patients and prospective ones.

Consultation spaces need a more casual and compassionate approach. Patients feel more empowered and informed in their care decisions, and physicians likewise benefit from a more collaborative environment shared by colleagues. HON’s Ignition line of sled-base and four-leg guest chairs put patients at greater ease, while Concinnity desks and Contain credenzas offer clean, contemporary workspaces.

Featured Products: Concinnity, Cofi, and Flock

4. Create Community Spaces

Reception isn’t the only waiting area in a hospital or healthcare campus. Once loved ones are checked in, it’s the role of informal spaces to provide comfort or contemplation for those who may be just as anxious as the patients themselves.

Whether it’s a quiet alcove, small café, or full-service cafeteria, these common areas create a crucial space for celebrating a positive prognosis, or consoling those facing a more dire one. In fact, when patients were asked what makes a healthcare setting “patient-friendly,” environments where their family and friends are likely to visit longer and more often was a revelation in forward-thinking facilities design.