What You Need to Know About Veterinary Clinic Construction

Just like any human medical location, a veterinary office or clinic has a lot of specific needs and must be designed and constructed in a way that facilitates efficiency for the staff and comfort for our pets. Whether your space is large or small, the objective of your construction team is to design a comfortable organized floor plan while maximizing space and leaving room for future growth.

This isn’t a task that can be undertaken by just any contractor. If you’re starting the process of building your own veterinary clinic, you need to work with a contractor like DESCCO that has the necessary knowledge and experience to tackle such a project. There are some things we always keep in mind that are unique to veterinary medicine when we build a clinic or an animal hospital, and they might help you to navigate your project as well.

Designing a Functional Layout

A good layout is essential to have a good vet clinic. You not only want to make it easy for yourself and your staff members to get around, access the materials they need, and perform their jobs efficiently, but you want to make it easy for pet owners to get their furry friends into and out of the clinic. This can mean things like accessible entries, short distances to exam rooms, and maximizing open layouts to make it possible to move around quickly and easily.

Choosing Practical Materials

Every medical profession comes with a little messiness, and with veterinarians, this goes without saying. A scared or sick animal can make a big mess, so in a veterinary clinic it’s something that you always must be prepared for. One of the biggest mistakes you can make when designing an animal hospital is choosing materials that aren’t easy to clean, and this applies to all spaces, not just exam rooms. A carpet in the waiting room could become a problem very quickly, for instance, so easily wipeable floors and walls are always recommended.

Prioritizing Noise Reduction

Something that’s much more crucial to be aware of when designing medical spaces for animals as opposed to humans is sound reduction. Veterinary clinics are often noisy places as dogs, cats, and other animals are close in proximity. This can not only be distracting for your staff and annoying for pet owners, but it can upset and agitate other pets, creating an anxious environment. Adding sound-dampening materials, particularly in exam rooms or kennels, can make a big difference in how smoothly the clinic runs.

Considering Flexibility

When it comes to pets and animals, flexibility is always a must if you want to get the job done. For instance, some animals are terrified by being up on a high exam table and prefer to stay on the floor, so an exam room needs to have enough space to accommodate this. Sometimes an animal might need to be briefly restrained with a leash or harness in order to do something like administer shots, so the space needs to have the necessary mounts for this as well. A good veterinary clinic is designed to allow this kind of flexibility, allowing the people that work there to roll with the punches and finish the task at hand quickly and as painlessly as possible for each individual pet.

While there’s nothing in the world that can guarantee that an animal will love going to the vet’s office, there are many big concepts and small details that an experienced contractor can incorporate into a veterinary clinic to make it a useful and pleasant space for everyone who comes through it. If you’re planning a building or renovating project for an animal hospital or vet clinic, contact DESCCO Design and Construction today. We have the knowledge and expertise to help you!