How Commercial Canopies Can Help Urgent Care Facilities Get Noticed

When time is of the essence, people must be able to find and recognize your urgent care facility. That includes ambulance drivers or other first responders as well as potentially distraught private individuals – patients themselves or someone assisting them with transportation.

Commercial canopies should make ingress as easy as possible.  

They should clearly direct the way to your emergency vehicle entrance, if you have one, as well as your pedestrian entrances. And commercial canopies should provide protection from the elements. That’s especially  important to protect seriously injured people as well as life-saving equipment and medical professionals from rain, snow or blazing sun as well as wind.

Wind can be a particular problem. Aside from simply blowing things around and making movement more difficult, wind carries dirt and sand or other particulates that could cause additional problems for anyone with an open wound or breathing difficulties. Incorporating sturdy, transparent wind screens can alleviate these concerns.

Commercial canopies help your facility get noticed before you’re needed.

Well-designed awnings and canopies give your exterior an attractive, professional appearance along with announcing who you are and what you do. That plants a seed with drivers or public transportation riders passing by.

Even though we don’t pay close attention to every business out the window, we definitely notice when something especially catches our eye. That’s why commercial awnings are so important to ensure your urgent care facility is eye-catching enough to make your location memorable. Then, when you’re needed, there’s no question where you are or how to find your entrance.

The same key considerations apply to all commercial canopies.

The attributes of commercial canopies that are important for designing any top-quality business awning come into sharper focus when the business is an urgent care facility, whether your place is a hospital or smaller clinic. Those considerations include:

  • Placement for greatest visibility — that means every viewing angle or driving direction.
  • Size – big enough to see from a distance.
  • Graphic design. Use minimal text to avoid confusion, and simple, bolder fonts —  your name or logo, your street number, “emergency” or other special designations that mark vehicle and pedestrian entrances.
  • Color – high contrast to enhance visibility.

Consistent branding throughout your campus and to match your other facilities is also essential. Hospitals and other large facilities often have one or several bus shelters on property – the commercial canopies that cover or lead to them should provide the same consistent look and messaging as canopies closer to your buildings.

Get noticed, but build confidence, too.

Having said all that, you want your commercial canopies to help lighten the load for people, too. Commercial canopies give your location a professional, confidence-building look. All businesses need an attractive, welcoming exterior to welcome customers, but your customers have a lot on their minds, they’re distracted and worried, so an appearance that visually implies safety and quality is essential.

Creative use of color and design can reinforce your branding. It can also make your buildings prettier and more pleasant, softening what is often blocky architectural design that can look forbidding to give it a “homier” feeling. That reinforces your facility’s caring side, and it’s part of the look commercial canopies can create to your place memorable.

Not every patient at an urgent care facility is in a life-and-death situation, but all of them – and their families – have a particularly heightened level of concern. It’s incumbent on you to do everything you can to speed and smooth their way to and into your facility, so they can get the care they need.

Commercial canopies can support all your signage and patient protection requirements, or they can combine those attributes by serving as your facility’s primary signage. Good design is the key to commercial canopies that help your urgent care facility get noticed.

Commercial Awnings

Photo Credit: “Urgent Care Tools” by Sonny Abesamis