Where to begin...?
That’s the question that Anthony and I asked ourselves when we recently decided to extend our house. Do we go to the bank first, talk to some builders, talk to the council…?
NO! We came up with the floor plan!
As the old saying goes: fail to plan and you plan to fail. When it comes to surgery interior design particularly, if you get the floor plan wrong, the whole thing could fall in a heap. It may look fantastic to start with, but if it doesn’t function properly eventually something will need to change.
Of course, you’ve worked in surgeries before, you know what works and what doesn’t. But what do you do if you’re starting with a clean slate? How many surgeries can I realisitically fit into this space? Where IS the best place for the steri, the lab, the OPG? Do I need an office and consult room? How much room should the staff room take up? Will I need six waiting chairs or 16?
And then the question that is often missed – what about planning for the future…?
We had a dentist approach us recently. I dutifully took his design brief and got the admin side sorted out. Then, during our programming meeting, we decided that Anthony would start the design process. Step 1: the floor plan.
He took away my briefing notes and the survey of the space. While getting his head around the space when he looked at my notes: the client wanted three surgeries. Three…? Are you sure…? He couldn’t possibly mean three – I’m sure you could get four… So, Anthony played around with the space and sure enough four surgeries worked really well together with everything else requested.
Our client was thrilled! Even though he was only planning for three rooms, giving him the option of four surgeries has given him a future expansion plan. He probably won’t fit out the last surgery until later, but at least the space is there ready and waiting!
So, the answer is: start at the very beginning with a floor plan! (You might even want to check out our ‘Limited Time Offer’)
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