A practice-management company can alleviate your office-design headaches

Dennis Fiorini, DC, at Fiorini Chiropractic Center, did not study office design extensively as a chiropractic college student.

This hallway at The Newberry Clinic of Chiropractic includes an x-ray room, a darkroom, restrooms, an examination room, and an associates office. Gary Newberry, DC’s office is at the end of the hall. Newberry also treats many athletes, so the wall photos illustrate that point.

The students at his college had to create a business plan and an office floor plan, but they did not address office traffic flow.

“They just said you need an x-ray room and other things, and go ahead and design it,” says Fiorini, whose practice is in Tallahassee, Fla. “I’m not an artistic person, so it was quite daunting for me.”

Before Fiorini went into practice, he consulted with a practice-management company, which created his office design based on the type of work that he does. In his practice, Fiorini uses the Atlas Orthogonal technique, which involves a specific type of table and adjusting instrument that can cost between $10,000 and $14,000.

The practice-management company helped Fiorini design a floor plan in which only one instrument would be needed. This resulted in significant cost savings.

Fiorini’s situation was not unusual. Chiropractic college courses do not extensively cover office design. Chiropractors can get around this problem by hiring a practice-management company to alleviate a great deal of the headache involved in designing an office.

Matching Office Design with a Chiropractor’s Style
When you walk into the Wetherington Chiropractic Clinic in Savannah, Ga, you can see only one side of the office.

“It creates anticipation for the patient, wondering what the other side of the office looks like,” says Bart Wetherington, DC.

Those entering the office can see the left side, which includes the consultation, examination, and x-ray areas. Wetherington is the only doctor in the office, and these rooms are very close to each other, controlling his walking distance between the three rooms.

The right side of the office is the treatment area, with four therapy tables and a traction table. This side of the office illustrates how it is best to design an office with the style of your practice in mind. Wetherington prefers an open environment when it comes to massage and electric treatment.

“We do that to get everyone talking and sharing testimony with each other on how much better they’re doing,” Wetherington says. “It’s a positive environment and conducive to healing, instead of being behind a curtain.”

Wetherington’s office design contributes to the open-environment feeling. A three-quarter-length wall separates the treatment rooms, so Wetherington can move from room to room without turning a doorknob 70 times per day. Wetherington sees about 70 patients a day, and his practice generates about $100,000 in revenue per month.

“In an upper cervical practice, you see more people than in a typical chiropractor’s office,” Wetherington says. “We designed our rooms to be very clean-flowing and fluid in motion. We don’t want the patient running all around the office.” This environment also provides privacy for the patients. They can hear that a conversation is going on in the next room, but they cannot hear what is being said.

A Practice Management Company Can Help
Gary Newberry, DC, The Newberry Clinic of Chiropractic in Winter Haven, Fla, had signed up with a practice-management company before opening his office, and part of the practice-management company’s services was to design Newberry’s office. Newberry met with his practice-management consultant, and together they sketched a floor plan. Like Wetherington, Newberry wanted his treatment rooms all on one side of the building to keep the treatment flowing smoothly. The business office is on the other side of the building. The therapy suite, x-ray and exam areas, break room, and kitchen are in the middle of the office. Newberry says that having the therapy suite in the middle of the office allows him to have walls that don’t go all the way up to the ceiling. This helps with air circulation and saves on heating and cooling costs.

Newberry owns the practice, which has two other DCs on staff. About 400 to 500 patients per week are treated here.

“Having the treatment rooms on one side keeps the doctor in treatment mode. It keeps his mind on one particular thing,” Newberry says. “The doctor can go from room to room quickly. If the schedule is done properly, he can see a bunch of patients in a row without interruption.”

An Aesthetically Pleasing Office
In addition to making sure the office is designed for a smooth flow for doctors and patients, chiropractors must also decide on several items that will make an office aesthetically pleasing. Lighting is one of those areas. Newberry says he and his practice-management company decided on fluorescent lighting, which gave the office a very bright look. All of the treatment rooms have windows where the sun can come in.

Newberry says he often relied on suppliers for tips on office design. Many paint and wallpaper companies have designers on staff, and their services are often free.

“They will advise you on which colors are the most modern and up to date, and they can help you match the blinds,” Newberry says. “The person I got the carpeting from laid out the color, blinds, and everything for my office.”

Wetherington says he keeps the treatment room design fairly simple, with a table in the center of the room and posters on the wall illustrating the upper cervical work that he does. In the therapy suite, he also hangs posters with more “heartwarming” messages, such as “Chiropractic is for the Family.”

A practice-management company can help you with many of your office-design needs. Just ask Newberry, who says only 30 days passed from the time he signed the lease on his building to the time the building was finished.

“That’s because I had a practice consultant,” Newberry says. “I strongly recommend that new practitioners go through a practice-management company that can help with every aspect of the practice. It took a whole lot of weight off my back and let me focus on getting patients well.”