MUSICAL CHAIRS Note where family members are sitting on your waiting room floor plan.

WAITING ROOM ETIQUETTE
Classy Way to Notify Patient's Family

Make copies of a simple floor plan of your waiting room, including all the chairs and sofas. Each day of surgery, you'll use a clean floor plan. When a patient checks in for surgery, note on the floor plan where the family members sit, indicating an identifying feature or characteristics, such as male/female, red coat, gray hair or child in tow. You can also tape the floor plan to a whiteboard and use a wipe-off marker to write down the patient's name. You can use this aid when you need to call the family post-procedure. Your staff (or their loved one's surgeon) can walk over to them with a smile and escort them to the consulting area or PACU. This adds to the warmth and personalized service your facility can provide and avoids impersonal pages and beepers. Yes, there is a chance the waiting parties will move around, but most surgical waiting rooms should be small enough for the receptionist to notice this and make adjustments to the floor plan.

Joan Dentler, MBA
Outpatient Strategies and ASC Strategies
Austin, Texas
[email protected]