6 Quick Tips on Medical Awnings

Awnings can serve a range of purposes for health care facilities, just as they can for other types of commercial businesses and buildings. But hospitals and clinics have additional challenges medical awnings can address nicely, too.

As profit margins get smaller and competition gets tougher in the health care industry, it’s becoming more important than ever to set yourself apart – in the quality of patient care you offer and in the overall image you project. These six quick tips will give you a good overview of how your organization can benefit from medical awnings.

1. Comprehensive weather protection is critical.

You don’t want visitors – especially patients — exposed to the weather as they’re arriving or leaving your facilities. People have enough on their minds without fighting the elements at your doorstep.

Medical awnings can cover walkways and create porticoes for your main entrance, emergency entrance, patient discharge areas and loading docks. You can use them to cover vehicles as well as people. And you can add sidewalls that serve as wind barriers, to protect entry points from blowing dust, rain or snow. That increases safety, keeping travel areas clean and dry.

You can use medical awnings to define and cover seasonal outdoor areas for seating, eating or gardens, making them more enjoyable for employees and patients. Or you can create tented or enclosed outdoor spaces for special events.

2. A decorative, attractive façade indicates a healthy commitment to the people you serve.

Hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices are a source of fear or worry for many people. Medical awnings can humanize your facility and make it feel less forbidding. Aesthetics set a tone of expectation and just as humor has healing powers, so does color. You don’t want medical awnings that are flamboyant and jarring, but you do want awnings that exude an air of professionalism and feel comfortable. Restful but upbeat. Optimistic.

And, frankly, medical awnings can perk up buildings that look, well, institutional, especially if they’re older.

3. Medical awnings can visually integrate your facilities with their surroundings.

If you’re a clinic or practice that operates out of a small storefront, this may not matter. But for large hospitals or long-term care facilities, a campus full of buildings can be confusing and intimidating for visitors. Medical awnings unite multiple buildings.

Use them to visually lead the way between buildings, making it easier for folks to find specialty departments or outpatient clinics they need. Medical awnings can serve as signage, too, imprinted with building identification, insignias or department names.

4. Consistent branding is a marketing “must.”

Health care businesses that operate multiple locations around the City or beyond have to be instantly recognizable, even from a distance. Medical awnings can provide a repeatable look for your entire family of facilities. Even if you have just one location, medical awnings tie your physical presence to your business identification and marketing collateral, using your “trademark” colors and graphics.

5. Shade is cool.

Hospitals and clinics that provide in-patient care are similar to hotels, in that there are many windows, usually on many floors. Medical awnings can shade rooms from the hot sun without cutting out valuable natural light. They keep windows cleaner. And, especially for south- and west-facing windows, installing medical awnings can significantly lighten your air conditioning load in the summer.

You’ll could see substantial costs savings, great news for your financial department and your bottom line.

6. The doctor is in.

Medical awnings have to be industrial-strength to withstand the Northeast’s notorious weather extremes, year after year. You need creative, customized design, guidance choosing the right materials, fast turn-around on fabrication and OSHA-certified professional installation.

You need a specialist – a full-service awning company experienced in working with hospitals and other health care operations. They understand your decision-making process can be complex, and they can navigate even the most bureaucratic waters with surgical precision.

Commercial Awnings