Today I get to do a post about something new.  My previous post’s for NHBPM have been rehash information that I have talked about in the past.  Now, I get to talk about something new.

Redesign a doctor’s office.  First let me say I am not the best decorator or designer.   If you ever look at the games I play on Facebook…my farms and cities etc are all a mess and unorganized 🙂  But I will make the attempt.

The first thing I would change is the temperature.  I don’t know about anyone else, but most doctors offices I go to are way to hot.  It seems like none of them believe in air conditioning.  What makes this worse is that I seem to do worse in the heat.  For whatever reasons, the hotter it is, the worse my Crohn’s is.  Also, because sometimes you have to wait forever, the heat makes waiting really unbearable.

The second thing I would change is the bathrooms.  I am not sure how it is outside of NYC, but most docs I go to have one bathroom.  Um, a lot of people who go to the doctor are sick and need to use the bathroom.  Not to mention us patients with IBD that well, need a bathroom all to ourselves.  Multiple rooms with multiple stalls would be great.    Having just one bathroom with one toilet just doesn’t cut it in my book.

Now we enter the exam room.  And for some reason, the room here is always freezing instead of being hot.  So we get undressed and sit on a metal table in a freezing room.  Again, let’s fix the A/C and get the proper temperature.  And speaking of being undressed, a lot of places give you the hospital gown to put on.  Here is my next change…multiple size gowns.  It seems like doctors carry one size….XXXXSmall.  And the gowns are so old that half of the ties are broken or missing.

So now we are in the exam room, half-naked and we wait, and wait, and wait.  I would love to have a countdown clock with a time of when I am going to see the dr.  I know his time is money…but what about mine.  I would love to not waste my day sitting half-naked waiting for someone to come in and spend 2 minutes with me.

So lets see…so far I have a well tuned A/C unit, more bathrooms, better gowns, and some sort of waiting countdown clock.

Not sure what else I would change at the moment.  To be honest, my GI doc’s office is actually pretty good overall so there isn’t much I would change.  I am thinking about other offices I have been in while I write this.

So as the first week of posts comes to a close, so does my list of redesigning my docs office.  It wasn’t much but it was an attempt.  I would love to hear what other people think of their offices and what they would change.  My challenge to you is do you think you can actually get the doc to make some of the changes you want?