Is the excessive noise in your practice driving you and your patients crazy? If so, it’s about time you did something about it. All sorts of noises contribute to your clinic. Poor sound design and disruptive noise can affect productivity and create a stressful work atmosphere. Acoustics play an important role in controlling noise and limiting distractions in your healthcare or veterinary practice. Here, we’ll discuss how sound can influence design and what clinics can do to create acoustic solutions for their space.
How a healthcare or veterinary clinic account for sound can be just as important as how it looks. The acoustics of a room relate to how sound and noise behave in a given environment. For example, sound may “bounce around” and reverberate in a room with sub-par acoustics. Worse, unwanted sound may seep through walls or floors in poorly-designed rooms.
GO FOR QUIET FLOORING
If you’ve got the funds for it, switch out your hard flooring for something more sound-absorbing. Carpet is much quieter, and it doesn’t have to be the type you’d find in a living room. If you prefer hard flooring, go with vinyl. Vinyl flooring gives you the hardness you love but is more sound-absorbing than other hard floors.
HANG NOISE-ABSORBING BANNERS
Noises can be hard to muffle in a healthcare office due to the large number of flat and hard objects. To help combat this issue, add noise-absorbing banners to your office ceilings.
These can be sheets of denim or cotton. And they don’t have to look like rags. Some nice, clean-cut squares can really do the trick without making your practice look like a laundromat. You could even get your patients involved. Let children decorate them after doing well in an appointment, or have a paint or design contest.
ACOUSTIC PANELS FOR CEILING
This product acts primarily to reduce the impact of noise by dampening sound as it rises through a room. Best of all, it is incredibly easy to set up and use. It can be simply clipped into a ceiling grid system, though it is also compatible with integrated lighting. This can create a highly impactful and dynamic feature in any practice.
PRESERVED MOSS – WALL APPLICATION
Natural elements in a healthcare office can make patients & your team feel more vibrant, and in this case absorb sound more efficiently. Unlike traditional office plants, preserved moss requires no soil, water, fertilizer, or regular maintenance. Just hang it up and let it improve the acoustics, optics, and vibes in your clinic.
DIGITALLY PRINTED MURALS – WALL OR CEILING
A great feature of a wall or ceiling mural is that it can act to beautify a space as well as enhance the acoustics. There is technology available to ensure optimal acoustic dampening for their products. You can also customize these mural designs to match your office’s branding.
ACOUSTIC LIGHTING PRODUCTS
Modern lighting options are available, that are both decorative and capable of assisting in sound management. Special lighting light can reduce ambient noise by up to 40%, which can help boost productivity in open office areas. One of the single most effective ways to reduce sound is to bring in more fabrics. Carpet instead of tile, fabric walls instead of open desks, upholstered seating instead of plastic chairs – all of these options can significantly reduce sound in your practice.
ADD A DEDICATED PLAY AREA
Do you have toys in your waiting room for children to play with? That’s one thing that probably contributes to the noise in your office. You don’t need to take those toys away, though. Instead, create a dedicated play nook instead of keeping the toys out in the open. This will help confine the noise to a specific area instead of sending it throughout the entire office.
PROVIDE HEADPHONES
Your patients may spend their waiting time watching videos or playing games. Chances are some of them will leave the sound on. To help lessen noise from electronic devices, have several sets of headphones on hand.
Apex Design Build
Apex is a well-respected design build firm based in Chicago, that serves Doctors nationwide, that has earned a stellar reputation for providing state-of-the-art ground-up Healthcare & Veterinary design architecture and construction over four generations. Apex delivers modern healthcare projects Nationwide that reflect the unique style and personality of individual practice owners.
Apex Design Build prioritizes every aspect of healthcare design when we are designing your project. We work with our clients to ensure their clinics look, feel, and sound their best. Let’s work together to get started on the exciting adventure of designing your healthcare office.