Curb Appeal: Hospitals, Nursing Homes, & Medical Offices Take Clues from Hotels

As health care becomes more consumer-driven, hospitals, nursing facilities, medical office buildings, diagnostic centers, and others are craving high-tech amenities as competition is fierce for the health care dollar. But even with the latest in “cutting-edge” equipment, a facility is still judged in many ways by its appearance. Why not gain the advantage from the start with curb appeal?

The hotel industry realized many years ago that an attractive facility sets the tone for its guests and is a competitive advantage if their curb appeal is more attractive than the other hotel down the street or across town.

“Today, with the wide variety of consumer choices, a good visual “first impression” can help create a competitive advantage for a healthcare facility,” stated Michael Kesti, President & CEO of Health Ventures, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in healthcare marketing.

Hospital and Long-term Care Facility administrators are interested in patient-centered care and an attractive curbside appeal added to their facilities can initiate that concept. “Hospitals and other facilities, including Nursing Homes, don’t have to look, smell and feel like hospitals or nursing homes,” Kesti, who has extensive experience in the senior care markets, including directing marketing departments for nursing home chains, stated. “We’ve come a long way since hospitals were designed to look like standard, boring, and plain buildings with a basic parking lot. So it makes sense to design the entrance and area around the facility inviting and attractive, even if the building itself is bland,” he continued.

“We’re trying to make hospitals and other medical facilities more inviting,” said Scott Michael, Director of Business Development and Marketing with Nanak’s Landscaping, Inc. “We try to design areas utilizing a natural color palette to provide an attractive and welcoming atmosphere. From a design standpoint, our goal is to assist facilities in that they don’t look like a hospital or nursing home when people drive up and walk along the sidewalk to the entrance,” he said. “When people approach a facility and it looks clinical and sterile, they can feel intimidated before they even step through the door. We strive to create a more comforting and soothing physical environment.”

“Most hospitals and nursing facilities were designed to put people in beds and then treat them,” Michael said. But with a significant increase in outpatient services, shorter stays, and increasing competition for health care dollars, “Curb appeal is much more important now and will continue to be in the future.”

Older hospitals often have the latest in technological equipment, but the buildings look out of date. “A facility runs the risk of becoming a book judged by its cover. The consumer can develop preconceived notions about the care they will receive inside based on the level of care given to the outside,” Michael said. “Improving the curb appeal can have dramatic positive results, is relatively inexpensive to implement, and can significantly increase admissions and revenues.”

Nursing Facilities and Rehabilitation Hospital have built gardens and greenhouses for patient therapy, but it has also benefited with the enhanced look of the facilities.

In addition, aesthetics is a factor in how hospitals can compete for personnel and how those staffs are retained. Nurses and other medical professionals enjoy coming to work at an attractive workplace. The sense of pride in a workplace can have a positive effect on staff attitude, which can result in better patient care.

The hotel industry caught onto this aspect of human behavior and figured out a way to take advantage of this conscious and subconscious action to choose a more attractive setting and even pay more for it. Hospitals, nursing facilities, medical office buildings, and others have begun to learn from this industry and many have spruced-up their landscaping to improve their curb appeal. Many report that these efforts have already paid off and now plan to expand their landscaping to include fountains, waterfalls, gardens, greenhouses, and other attractive features to maintain their advantage.