Chiropractic Office Design Fundamentals

By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

Sometimes the most basic things are overlooked when we are developing any kind of business space. I’ve taken photographs in various chiropractic offices for about the past 15 years, and there are significant differences as well a similarities, when it comes to chiropractic office design.

This week Planet Chiropractic is working on some of the fundamentals to be discussed with each chiropractic office presentation. For example, with each chiropractic office we do a piece on, we’d like to include data such as square footage, whether the structure is freestanding or part of an office building, leased property or owned property, located at street level or some other floor beside the first floor, geo data, address information (so you can visit the office if in the area), type of practice (multi-doctor, multi-discipline, combines other services, etc.), and the list goes on.

All office design related topics will appear in this section of the chiropractic blog pages: chiropractic office design

A single photograph can say a lot about a chiropractic office. To get us started on this topic, let’s take a look at this one…

This photo is of the front desk in my Los Angeles chiropractic office. I purposely did not include the front desk manager in the photograph so we could focus on particular aspect of the front desk design. One of the first things people see when they enter the office is the poster that reads “subluxations get on your nerves.” That helps this chiropractic office educate right from the start. There are always pens available (inside the plastic vertebrae on the left) and there is a big pen located on top of the sign in forms. Office hours and healthy affirmations are featured on the laminated page to the right of the sign-in sheet. There is also an ample amount of business cards available at the front desk (more is better).

You’ll notice there are some papers stacked between the business cards and the sheet used for signing in. Those are quarter cut pieces of paper with information about the office. The content of those sheets changes, sometimes being office hours for holidays, reminders of having active e-mail addresses on file, or information about upcoming events.

On the wall to the left is a positive affirmation statement that sits within a plastic tray. This statement gets rotated on a regular basis. below that is a more permanent laminated sign basically saying thank you for making your payments in advance. Further back on the left wall is a large calendar that can be the viewed by everyone at the front desk. It works great for scheduling. Below that are five clipboards with blue sheets of paper on them. I believe there are now eight clipboards in that location but you can only see five in this image. Those are “new patient” clipboards and they are rotated throughout the day, as new people enter the office. The clipboards are based on a “build it and they will come” concept. The office has had times when all five clipboards were in use with new people filling out paperwork (why the others were added).

The front desk is a critical part of any chiropractic business that functions in this sort of model. If you’ve got a particular story about your chiropractic office design, send it our way and we will get it posted to this web site.