4 Awesome Patient Waiting Room Ideas: Making your Hospital or Clinic Waiting Rooms More Engaging

Patient engagement is an increasingly important factor in value-based care.

Some hospitals and medical offices treat their patients as in-waiting VIPs. In fact, if you’ve been running a healthcare practice or wellness center for some time then you'll already know that patient engagement matters. Not only does in ensure return patients and increased word of mouth; patient engagement is also critical to increasing your quality of care scores.

You may already have taken measures to increase patient engagement during interactions with staff, but did you know that the right waiting room design and digital signage usage can kickstart that engagement even before your patients even start interacting with nurses and doctors. The doctor office waiting room is a great opportunity to engage with patients and make the most of what many patients call the most anxiety-provoking part of their visit.

The ultimate tool for increasing patient engagement (and soothing patient anxiety) is waiting room TV - an interactive, TV-based platform designed to drive outcomes for your practice. Here’s why:

Learn How FYZICAL Chicago Increased Patient Engagement and Education with UPshow

Optimized Doctors Office Waiting Room Education and Entertainment

Making room for digital signage that shows medical information in your waiting room design is important, but showing educational content on its own can be overwhelming and increase anxiety, reducing patient engagement as they tune out the worrisome or confusing messaging.

Waiting room TV allows you to tailor your content to your patients interests, including local sports teams, news, and special topics. When patients see the themes that matter to them, their mind is taken off of their pain and stress, soothing them. As they engage with the screen, they’re also more likely to remain receptive announcements and education information.

Fostering a Sense of Community for Patients in Waiting Room

Patients waiting to be seen can often feel isolated and alone in their ailments. Waiting room TV expands beyond traditional programming and becomes a platform for community connection and sharing patient journeys, if they so choose.

Encourage staff to play a role in patient engagement by sharing bios onscreen, making them familiar faces to patients and less intimidating, or add some cheer and boost awareness by celebrating health holidays and patient milestones.

Use your waiting room TV to make staff feel familiar, reducing patient anxiety.

Clear and Effective Communication in Doctors Waiting Room

As the waiting room TV becomes a central focus for patients, it becomes an information hub they will look to for notices and other educational materials you choose to share -- reinforcing pamphlets and signs, and making sure every patient engages with important information that should be recalled later during or after their visit.

Communications onscreen can take advantage of dynamic animations to become even more eye catching and customizable. You can even educate patients by incorporating trivia games that can be joined via a mobile device -- further reinforcing patient engagement.

The best part for a busy practice? Messaging is easily updated and simple to create or edit via the Cloud, meaning no late or outdated information.

Control Over Doctor's Office Waiting Room TV Advertising

Some practices less invested in improving patient engagement choose to simply play traditional TV in their waiting rooms. Besides lacking the above benefits, be aware: TVs that play satellite or cable give you no control over programming or advertising, even if they are tuned to a medical channel. This means they can play content that is distasteful, ads for medication your don’t carry, or advertise for your competitors! Waiting room TV puts you in control of what you show, when, meaning no confusion or discomfort for your patients and fewer problems for your practice.

Interested in waiting room TV? Get a free demo of the above features and more with UPshow, the custom patient engagement platform built to drive results from your TV in the waiting room and beyond.