Design clinics with sick patients in mind

Gail Munford, Las Vegas

Monday, March 23, 2009 | 2:01 a.m.

It seems to me that the architects of medical buildings never thought of the fact that many people who visit doctors or go for tests or lab work in these buildings are not healthy, not strong, not always accompanied by someone else, and may be disabled and using a walker or cane or wheelchair.

The problem patients face with these buildings is that many of the doors are extremely heavy and not easy to open. All doors on medical buildings need to have outside and inside buttons that can be pushed to allow them to open like those found on most hospital doors.

All medical buildings need a few chairs in the entrance lobby where a sick person can stop to rest a couple of minutes after struggling in from his car, van or bus. Future medical buildings should be designed so that no medical office is down a long hallway but rather all offices are in a circle for easy access.

A telephone in the entrance lobby might be a good idea for those patients who just don’t feel they can make it any farther so that the office where they have an appointment can send a staffer with a wheelchair to help them.

In addition, there needs to be more handicapped parking spaces at medical buildings with some sort of shade over them. Landscaping around medical buildings must be free of all kinds of grass and rocks and areas that you need to step up to walk on, and they should have a few entrances so a patient does not have to walk far, especially in the Las Vegas summer heat.

For those able people using these buildings, please pay attention when you see a disabled person trying to open the door or who needs assistance in some other way. Get up and help them. You’d want someone to help you in that situation.