Business Talk: The waiting (room) is over

Disinfect surfaces, avoid chairs with a material finish, keep people out of confined spaces, and always stay two metres apart. This, ladies and gentlemen is the death of the waiting room due to COVID-19. But the news gets better. What if I told you this was a good thing?

Let’s first review the concept and the contents of the traditional waiting room in a medical office. For instance, I had four chairs: one two-seat lounge chair, and one long couch that comfortably sat three people. Before physical distancing, at most, I could seat eight people. If I were to have a waiting room today I could only seat four. Not only is it an inefficient use of space, the chairs and surfaces would continually have to be sanitized and that requires additional labour hours. For this reason, March 14, 2020 was the last day the waiting room existed in my practice and there is no turning back.

Pivoting with the times
The truth is, the absence of the waiting room makes the office more efficient. Front staff are not getting confused about who is next, they are not inundated with small-talk from the patients’ and they are not being asked how much longer until their turn. The front staff is simply more productive. Now, patients are only permitted to enter at the time of their appointment. So, if there appointment is 2:30 p.m., they must come in at 2:30 p.m. If they come at 2:10 p.m., they must return to their car and come in at the correct time. Once they arrive at their scheduled time, they sanitize their hands and are immediately brought into one of our six treatment rooms. This way, patients rarely see other patients from the time they arrive to the time they leave (through a different door).

How is this more efficient?
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has a stand-up skit on the concept of the waiting room in the mid 1990’s. Basically, Seinfeld points out that you wait in a big waiting room only to be brought to a smaller waiting room to wait for the doctor. Under the old system a patient that arrives for a 2:30 p.m. appointment might not be brought into a room until about 2:40 p.m. Then I arrive a couple of minutes later. Conceivably appointments were starting about 15 minutes after their scheduled times. Now? I am seeing the patient within a couple of minutes of being escorted into the room – if not immediately. Overnight I became much more productive. Visits began sooner, treatments began sooner and the masks in general are a conversation deterrent because they are uncomfortable. The best part of all is that the length and quality of patient treatment remained the same.

Moving ahead
We now live in an anti-bacterial, anti-virus era. The waiting room was full of people sitting in chairs that other people were sitting in minutes before them. The chairs, tables, and magazines were only sanitized at days end, but not after every single use. The patients were much closer than 6 feet apart and someone was constantly coughing or sneezing. It is quite possible that the cessation of the waiting room is a good thing.

The waiting room is no longer here but the defacto waiting room becomes the parking lot. Lots of room for physical distancing, patients can still access my Wi-Fi signal and there is not concern for cross-contamination of germs from the furniture or the magazines. Ironically, the demise of the waiting room means that they are actually waiting less time to see you. Naturally we need to make exceptions for those without a vehicle, or those with physical limitations. Because I have multiple rooms, in certain instances I will place patients who are exceptions into a sanitized room rather than sending them out to the parking lot. All-in-all though, patients are enjoying the efficiency. Give it a try, it will surprise you.

Anthony LOMBARDI, DC, is a private consultant to athletes in the NFL, CFL and NHL, and founder of the Hamilton Back Clinic, a multidisciplinary clinic. He teaches his fundamental EXSTORE Assessment System and practice building workshops to various health professionals. For more information, visit www.exstore.ca.