Downsizing Your Medical Office

By Daniel Schumacher

As downward pressure on healthcare provider compensation continues, the necessity for efficiency in medical office space is increasingly essential to maintaining profitability. Real estate costs, whether in the form of monthly rent or a mortgage payment, are one of the highest single expenses for medical practitioners.

With careful planning, real estate expenses can be reduced by redesigning and rethinking the way the space is used. It is possible to reduce a typical sole practitioner’s office averaging 1,700 square feet by upwards of 15 percent by focusing on areas that generate revenue and redesigning necessary spaces for multiple purposes and optimum use. The efficiencies can be realized without impacting the acuity of the patient or the quality of the services.

Here are five suggestions on how to save space and therefore save money:

1. Reduce seating in waiting room

Consider sharing a waiting room with an adjacent practice or scheduling patients in such a way that wait times are reduced. A typical seat, with circulation, can take up to 15 square feet; therefore, trimming just five seats will save at least 75 square feet.

2. Reduce files on site by scanning or storing off site

The reception area including check-in, check-out and medical records space can be made smaller simply by reducing the amount of charts that are stored on site. The federal mandate for Medicare providers to use electronic medical records by 2015 will eliminate the need for large bulky filing cabinets or a room dedicated to the storage of medical records. Scan old records or store them off site where the occupancy costs are significantly less. In total, it should be possible to reduce the business office by 50 to 100 square feet.

3. Be efficient with patient room size

The exams room should be of a size appropriate for the type of patient being seen. A typical pediatric room is about 80 square feet while an orthopedic or ob-gyn exam room might be 100 square feet. The key is to keep the room as small as possible while still being able to examine the patient in an efficient manner. For example, placing the trash receptacles or rolling stool under a wall hung sink will free up some floor space.

4. Eliminate or reduce the size of the break room

It would likely be a Draconian step to eliminate the room entirely and only have a small alcove for the refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker because, in some cases, the break room functions as a conference or meeting room as well. If you only have a small alcove, try to schedule employee meetings before or after patient hours and use the already well appointed waiting room. A compromise would be to provide a staff lounge that offers minimal seating but still presents a place for employees to take a break. Eliminating or reducing the size of the break room can save approximately 80 square feet.

5. Eliminate separate practitioner offices

The days of opulent provider offices are long gone. Providers have transitioned from having their own office to sharing an office to having multiple providers working in the same area. For a sole practitioner, the best way to save space is to eliminate the office and work out of a dictation area adjacent to the examination rooms. This would have a net reduction of approximately 100 square feet in the overall office suite.

By having fewer chairs in the waiting room, converting to electronic medical records, sizing the examination rooms appropriately, eliminating the break room and doing away with the provider’s private office, providers can save more than 300 square feet in office space. Depending on the location and market, this could equate to $4,500 to $9,000 in annual savings.