Planning your office interior can be both a fun exercise and a frustrating experience. The more planning you do before you begin work, the more the fun and the less the frustration.

ROOMS

How many square feet will you need? This is determined by the types of activities in the office. Here are some possibilities:

• Reception and waiting areas
• Front office operations, billing
• Doctor private office
• Examination room
• Report of findings room
• Evaluation, consultation room
• Adjustment rooms
• X-Ray
• Therapy, rehabilitation
• Special procedure rooms
• Massage therapist
• Nutritional supplement sales
• Staff break room
• Rest room(s)
• Conference room
• Storage room

Prepare a list of the essential rooms and the square footage needed for each. Think about what usages can be combined. For example: Can you store supplies in the break room? Can the doctor’s office also function as an evaluation/consultation room? Can the adjustment rooms be used for examinations?

DESIGN AND DECORATION

Before you begin to design your office interior decoration, go back to your USP. You will want the furnishings, wall decorations, furniture, and the general décor of your office to align with your USP. Decide on a general color scheme before you begin decorating. You may have the opportunity to make major changes; if so, here are some considerations

• Traffic flow. Plan traffic patterns carefully. Think about the progress of a patient from the reception area to an examining room to x-ray to adjusting and back to the front desk. Is the flow logical?

• Walls. Keep walls in subtle colors to blend with the decorations, pictures and posters you will be using. Use easy-to-clean paint, particularly if there are many children in the office.

• Floors. Use good industrial-strength carpeting or tile that will withstand a lot of traffic and still look nice.

• Reception area furniture. You don’t have to spend lots of money to find nice-looking furniture for this area. Just make sure it’s sturdy and clean; avoid upholstered furniture, which is more difficult to keep clean.

• Paintings, posters, and artwork. Some chiropractors believe you should only use chiropractic posters in the office. Others believe that patients are more relaxed looking at nice artwork. Your choice here.

• Children’s area. You can find a sturdy table and chairs and some safe children’s toys and books at a garage sale. Replace the books and toys often (donate the old ones to a local church or Goodwill.) Paint the furniture in bright colors with child-safe paint.

• Communications/security. Consider adding a security system, depending on what your building already has. Pay for at least three phone lines: one for the office phone, a second for internet, and a third for a backup line/fax line/credit machine line.

• Electrical. Be sure you have adequate outlets. Don’t forget a 220-volt line if you will have x-ray equipment or other special high-voltage equipment. Be sure you have adequate overhead lighting in all patient rooms; no one likes a gloomy office.

• Accessibility. Make sure the contractor knows and follows ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) guidelines for office construction for rest rooms, door handles, access.

• Safety. Prepare lead-lined walls, windows, and other safety requirements for x-ray usage.

• Front desk and billing. Make sure you can maintain privacy of patient information at the front desk. You don’t want people looking down on the front desk person while he/she is working on patient files; the computer screen should not be visible from the reception area. Keep your billing area separate from the front desk operations for privacy and security reasons.

• Safety/fire codes. Have the local fire marshal come in to the office and evaluate egress (exit) patterns and other fire safety issues, before you finalize the plans.

Planning carefully and logically and using your USP as a guideline will give you a pleasant, safe office environment that you can live with for a long time.

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