Removing layers of cost & time in bespoke workplace & medical fitouts.

I’m Gavin, founder of a design & construct company called Icon Interiors, here in Australia.

We specialise in medical spaces, designed for human experience, people connection & renewal.

Just a word on our background, which will give context to the point I want to share in regards to ‘The missing piece in healthcare facilities’.

Our background for many years was workplace design & office fitout, and we’ve been very much part of the movement of the evolution of workplace design – which is the perception transition of the office going from a place where you had to attend daily to do tasks to now Human centric spaces.

So we’re coming out of times when the future of the office has been in question, which has forced businesses to face the facts that the real value of space is to perform as People centres, not simply Task centres.

So where & how do medical premises and healthcare facilities fit into this? And what is the reality of patient experience at the environments?

Well, with commercial interior design office spaces, there are 7 benchmark performance metrics & 5 wellbeing principles that measure the success of the physical office environment, for people to have a sense of belonging, wellness, and to want to be there – and in the case of workplaces it is critical to the financial survival & success of a commercial or corporate organisation.

But medical centre fitouts haven’t been exposed to this level of human experience accountability, because it hasn’t been deemed crucial to the financial success of the practice. Medical practices haven’t needed to attract people to come and perform at their best, the traditional model is this client is sick, this person is unwell – they have to come here – we don’t have to earn that right or attract people to come or make people feel great when then there, and the practice will still be financially a success.

So in a nut shell, in contrast to interior fitout companies designing for the workplace, with medical design there hasn’t been the accountability – for medical practice stakeholders the biggest single metric for the practice owner is the health of the balance sheet, and a people centred facility hasn’t been critical to this profitability.

So the question is, does a patient centred approach need to be at a big cost?

1 big opportunity we see & help clients with is residential to medical conversion.

Now what has been a big deterrent with turning a house into a medical clinic, is perceived residential zoning and development applications controls prevent large scale medical centres being at the heart of the location of the need in communities.

However if you engage with a D & C interior fitout company that specialises in this, and has an inhouse town planning team, we can tell you it can be a very cost effective and absolutely achievable outcome.

With the right approach, there is no need to bulldoze & rebuild a new facility, which often is the cause for not being able to go ahead due as a full rebuild triggers local planning controls which prevents the approval to operate a medical facility in a residential zone.

So for example, we’ve completed many house to medical fitout facility conversions, using a People centred performance methodology matrix & design process – all the things we’ve learnt in workplace design – to cost effectively transform a house into a medical centre, which by definition are at the heart of communities right where the need is, and for a very pleasing outcome that makes them feel special, sets the patients at ease, in comfortable & relatable environments that literally makes them feel like there at home.

I’ll finish with showing some before & after photos of a recent clinic. And of course for more information on how to achieve people focussed healthcare facilities, please visit our website at iconinteriors.net.au

Thank you.