The family physician's office: proposed design criteria for family centered medical care.

Four design criteria, home extension, personal extension, family centered environment, and patient education, are explored as guidelines for creating a therapeutic atmosphere in the family physician's office. They can be applied to the entryway, waiting and reception areas, hallways, examination rooms, nurses' station, laboratories, and the physician's private office. They are intended not to replace the traditional design criteria of efficiency, economy, safety, and convention, but to enhance their effectiveness. This occurs when the total environment, physical, administrative, and social, is consciously managed for the purpose of patient therapy and staff well-being. Attention to family centered design criteria facilitates this management and helps to ensure that many components of the health-care system benefit the patient.