Integrated practice design, layouts and physical strategies for movement within chiropractic offices
Expanding your services to include integrated medical care can provide your patients with a multidisciplinary “one-stop” solution to their health care, but how this will impact your integrated practice design?
As detailed in our article published in Issue 15 of October 2020, “Modern office design and the integrative health care space,” the key difference to be considered with medical integration, as it impacts your facility, is the requirements involved for the handling of human bodily fluids.
There are three basic guidelines as it relates to integrated practice design:
- Dedicated space for administering testing and/or treatment controlled by clean protocols;
- Finishes that are easily cleaned and washable; and
- Sinks for handwashing in the rooms and/or easily accessible.
This article is focused on giving you a variety of examples of chiropractic offices with a medical component integrated into their care.
Integrated practice design example #1:
This large 6,000-square-foot space is a multi-doctor practice focused on the foundation of chiropractic with nine adjusting bays. It combines integrated medical with a nurse practitioner and C-arm X-ray, as well as three massage rooms, active therapies and 600 square feet of open active physical therapy.
Example #2:
This 4,800-net-square-foot integrated practice design has two adjusting bays, with the balance focused on the medical and physical therapy integration. Included are four medical exam rooms, two medical procedure rooms, a four-chair IV room, and 1,157 square feet of open physical therapy.
Example #3:
This office combines medical with physical therapy. The total net square footage is 4,728. The area dedicated to the integrated medical component includes four exam rooms circling the nurses’ station, a lab and passive therapy bay, and 1,224 square feet of open physical therapy space.
Example #4:
For a multi-disciplinary clinic focused on wellness, this clinic is 3,730 net square feet. Three adjusting rooms, two medical treatment rooms, and three multidisciplinary exam report rooms flank the sides. The balance, approximately one third of the space, is an open active and passive physical therapy space of 1,330 square feet.
These examples show you just the beginning of planning options and possibilities as clinics move toward becoming integrated practices.
CAROLYN BOLDT, IIDA, LEED AP, has more than 35 years’ experience as a commercial interior designer. Over this time, she gained a complete understanding of the industry, which includes retail, hospitality, health care, corporate, sustainability and relocation design. She is a registered designer, and is a principal for CrossFields, with the mission to create practical and impactful environments that elevate chiropractic success. She can be contacted through chiropracticofficedesign.com.
