Your GP surgery will be the first medical port of call for the majority of your patients. Therefore, it is crucial that you make it a friendly, welcoming atmosphere, somewhere people feel comfortable. How do you do this effectively, however?

• Make sure that all the staff are friendly

A seemingly common trend in some patients’ experiences in general practices (GPs) is that their visit can often be a negative one. This is often due to the treatment they receive from staff, particularly receptionists. So, if you want to make your GP surgery better, work on improving the communications and interactions between staff and visitors.

If a patient is visiting the GP, there will be a reason for it. Common reasons for going to a GP include having high blood pressure, back pains, headaches and mental illness.

So, staff and colleagues should work together to ensure that everyone who enters the practice is treated with care and respect. As the saying goes, treat other people how you yourself would like to be treated. It is important to deliver excellent customer service to all visitors and between staff.

• Make sure you have good-quality equipment

If you want your GP to run as smoothly as possible, you ideally want to have the highest quality and well-functioning equipment, and technology to suit. Technology-wise having good software that you may be able to find prom providers similar to www.patientnow.com/ and other patient management operation providers can possibly help you keep track of your patients and their requests, plus records better. This in turn could make for a potentially smoother running practice, which may have a positive effect on patient outcomes. Everything from autoclaves, aprons, to couch rolls and medical furniture, which you can purchase from medical-supermarket.com, should be of great quality. Improvements in even the smallest (e.g., gloves) to the largest (e.g., wheelchairs and furniture) pieces of equipment, can make a world of a difference in the comfortability and therefore functioning of a GP surgery. So, thoroughly check and inspect all, if not most, of the equipment within the surgery for quality-control purposes. If you notice any faults or flaws in the equipment, consider upgrading.

• Create a warming and welcoming atmosphere

Similar to the first point, you want to ensure that the GP surgery creates a warm and welcoming environment. This is important as it can ensure that all the staff enjoy working there, boosting productivity and efficiency. It will also result in visitors enjoying their time in the practice too. This can help the GP surgery as it increases the likelihood of guests leaving positive reviews. Reviews to a GP surgery, similar to other businesses, are vital, as they can either encourage or discourage future patients from visiting. So, the more welcoming you are, the better for everyone.

Importantly also, you want to create a comfortable atmosphere. You can achieve this by improving the design of the surgery itself. So, it is important to make the design of the GP comfortable as research has shown this to be a factor that affects how patients feel about the care they are given.

Unsurprisingly, going to a practice which is dull, grey and poorly designed, therefore, will leave a negative, lasting impression on the visitor. On the other hand, going to a space which is filled with radiant colours, natural light and a uniform, thematic design, will likely spark positive feelings and impressions. So, if your GP does not already do so, use as much natural light as possible as opposed to artificial lights. Do some research into how to best design the surgery and watch it do better.