Your waiting room is the gateway to your practice. When patients visit they base their satisfaction not just on the care you provide, but also on the environment you provide. Delivering a superior patient experience can be challenging, especially when it comes to creating comfortable patient waiting rooms. TV’s are an integral part of any modern medical office and it’s important to understand the Top 10 priorities for medical offices, when designing your waiting room experience.

1. Professionalism

Providing a professional environment for patients is of the utmost importance for medical providers. Patients for trust in their doctors, not just from the level of care they receive, but the environment in which they are treated. Displaying  inappropriate TV shows and films can create an uncomfortable atmosphere which can undermine what a medical provider is trying to accomplish. And Cable TV and online streaming services have much more inappropriate content than you may think.

2. Compliance

Keeping up with government requirements and regulatory protocol is important to running a successful practice. Cable TV is often not compliant with certain regulations and isn’t built with a medical office in mind.

3. Communication

Selecting specific content that relates to a medical provider’s specialty can be a great way to communicate to patients how their health is connected to their lifestyle. Using a TV in your waiting room or exam rooms is a great way to communicate with your patients.

4. Stress Free

Watching worry-free and appropriate content helps to reduce anxiety and stress levels in the patient. A cooking show, music video or celebrity interview can go a long way to easing peoples’ minds as they wait. Controlling what’s on the TV allows you to create a stress-free environment.

5. Entertainment

Entertainment is important in a medical environment. You don’t want people to be bored while they wait, or to feel like they are spending too much time waiting in your office. Being able to provide patients with a variety of content helps to keep them interested in waiting for their appointment or procedure to start.

6. Staying up to Date

Having the latest news on the TV is actually quite valuable. But not the kind of news you find on 24/7 news stations on cable. Medical offices need to have filtered news that is up to date, but won’t be off-putting to their patients. Companies like It’s Relevant TV and RELE.TV provide filtered news content for medical offices.

7. Branding

Your brand is important. This ties into the 1st point of professionalism. Having your logo on the wall, the front desk or on the TV is a great way to show the strength of your brand.

8. Educational

Being able to provide educational content related to the services you provide or specific specialties can help patients understand more about what you do. It can help them become more comfortable in your environment. But you don’t want to go overboard “over educating” them. It’s important to have a balance between providing helpful information, and giving patients too much– causing them added anxiety about being at your office.

9. Safety & Preventative Care

Content that provides tips and other elements of preventive care can be an important part of the patient experience. That’s where patients can leave the office with a few helpful action items in mind. During the peak of COVID-19, many offices moved to provide information on how to prevent the spread of the virus. Videos about proper hand washing, and social distancing were great examples of ways patients could act better to avoid getting the virus. Today many of these messages remain relevant.

10. Cost Saving

Investing in a platform like It’s Relevant TV can help to save costs related to content. By choosing from their huge library of content that is categorized and customizable to match what your patients enjoy watching, you can minimize costs that can be otherwise associated with cable subscriptions or individual streaming services. It’s Relevant does not require a cable or satellite subscription to work so you can cut the cord.

In conclusion, it’s important for a medical office to control what’s on their TV. This can help create a professional environment, as well as provide educational content. Investing in a platform like It’s Relevant TV for Medical Offices can help to save costs related to content while avoiding risks and retaining the professional atmosphere needed.