Plan a medical clinic, lab or dental office layout

Step by step

1. 1

   Open the Medical & Labs templates

   On Home, tap Use Template (Pre-designed layouts). In the picker, tap the Medical & Labs · 7 chip, or type lab, clinic or dental in the search box. The seven plans:

   Template	Size	What's in it
   Hospital Clinical Lab	56′ × 28′	Specimen receiving with centrifuges, an analyzer line and two floor analyzers, hematology and urinalysis benches, a microbiology corner with a biosafety cabinet, a lab fridge, a −80 °C freezer, an eyewash and shower by the exit, a supervisor office and supply storage
   Research Lab	50′ × 36′	Two island benches with reagent shelves, wall benches, two fume hoods, ultra-low freezers, a cell culture room with two biosafety cabinets and double-stacked CO2 incubators, a PI office
   Blood Draw Center	44′ × 30′	Reception and waiting, six draw stations with carts and privacy screens (one bariatric), a specimen processing room, a patient restroom, a staff room
   Family Medical Clinic	60′ × 40′	Waiting and reception, four exam rooms, a procedure room, the doctor's office, a nurse station, a lab and draw room, an accessible restroom
   Infusion Center	50′ × 36′	Eight infusion bays around a central nurse station, a medication prep bench, an emergency cart, waiting and restrooms
   Dental Office	50′ × 40′	Four operatories, sterilization, an X-ray / panoramic room, reception, the doctor's office, a break room
   Doctor's Office Waiting Room	20′ × 18′	A reception desk and waiting seating

   

2. 2

   Preview, name it and tap Use this template

   Tap a card to see the plan, its size, floor area and furniture count (the Hospital Clinical Lab shows 56′ × 28′, 1568 sq ft, 51 items) and a description of what's in it. Type a name under Name your design if you want something other than the template's name, then tap Use this template. The plan opens as your own design; nothing you change affects the template.

   

3. 3

   Read the lab plan by workflow

   The Hospital Clinical Lab is laid out the way specimens travel. They come in through the door on the bottom wall to receiving and the centrifuges, go to the analyzer wall along the top (the automated line and two floor analyzers), then to the hematology and urinalysis benches, with the microbiology corner (biosafety cabinet, incubator, microscopes) on the right. The supervisor office and supply storage sit off the left end. The eyewash and shower stands by the exit. The aisle between the analyzer fronts and the central island bench is about 8 ft 3 in, and between the island and the bottom benches about 8 ft 8 in. That's well over the 5 ft to 5 ft 6 in centre aisle the NIH lab-module guidance is built around, because floor analyzers need a technician working in front and room to swap reagent packs and open service panels. Every template opens at Flow check OK.

   

4. 4

   Find the equipment in Furnish → Medical & Lab

   In the Furnish panel, scroll the room tabs to Medical & Lab. It has three groups: - Lab Equipment: Lab Analyzer (Floor) (4′11″ × 2′8″), Lab Analyzer Line (Large) (9′2″ × 2′11″), Lab Analyzer (Floor, Side Screen), Lab Analyzer (Floor, Wide, Top Monitor), three Lab Line Modules, benchtop and urine analyzers, lab benches (6 ft, 8 ft with reagent shelf, 12 ft island, seated 5 ft), Biosafety Cabinet 4 ft and 6 ft, Fume Hood 6 ft, lab fridges, an Ultra-Low Freezer -80°C, centrifuges, a microscope, a CO2 incubator, an autoclave, a Lab Sink Cabinet and an Emergency Eyewash & Shower. - Clinic & Exam: blood draw chairs (standard and bariatric), an Exam Table, a procedure chair, waiting room seating for 2 to 5, supply and emergency carts, a hospital bed, a wheelchair, an IV pole and a privacy screen. - Dental: a Dental Chair with its light and tray, dentist and assistant stools, rear and tall dental cabinets, a delivery cart, a panoramic X-ray and a wall-arm intraoral X-ray. Desks, office chairs, storage and fixtures follow in the same tab. You can also search: lab, medical or dental lists the whole group, and names like centrifuge, bsc or urinalysis find the piece in any of the app's nine languages.

   

5. 5

   Size each piece to your own machine

   Tap a piece to select it. The bar that opens shows its name and W, D and H boxes; tap a box and type the width, depth and height from your machine's spec sheet. The Lab Analyzer Line (Large) starts at 9′2″ wide, 2′11″ deep and 5′6″ tall, for example. Rotate turns it, Flip mirrors it (useful when the screen or sample shelf is on the other side), Quick sizes gives Small / Medium / Large, and Color recolours it. Duplicate places a copy beside it. Type the footprint including anything that sticks out (a side-mounted touchscreen, a sample shelf, a keyboard tray), because that's what the aisle has to clear.

   

6. 6

   Build an automated analyzer line from modules

   For a modular automation line, use the three separate modules: Lab Line Module (Sample Handler) (4′ × 4′8″), Lab Line Module (Chemistry) (4′11″ × 3′10″) and Lab Line Module (Immunoassay) (4′9″ × 3′10″). They share the same base and front sample track. Drag them onto the plan, then drag each one up against the one beside it. When it gets close it snaps flush, and the pieces read as one continuous line. In our test the modules didn't snap when first dropped from the catalog (they landed a few inches apart); dragging each one the last few inches did it. Check that the front sample tracks line up; if one sits proud, drag it until they do. Add as many chemistry and immunoassay modules as your line has, and resize any of them to your real module widths. Pieces that only touch are not reported as overlaps by Flow Check, so a flush line stays at Flow check OK.

   

7. 7

   Check the line in 3D

   Open the 3D view. The modules read as one machine with a continuous sample track along the front, the sample handler taller at one end. In 3D you can judge what a plan can't show: whether the monitors and loading bays face the aisle, whether the line blocks a window, and how much wall is left for the reagent fridge.

   

8. 8

   Put benchtop equipment on benches, and stack incubators

   Benchtop pieces (the benchtop and urine analyzers, centrifuges, the microscope, the autoclave, the CO2 incubator) sit on top of whatever you drop them on: a lab bench, a desk, a counter, or the work surface inside a biosafety cabinet or fume hood. Monitors and lamps stand on lab benches and dental counters too. - The Lab Refrigerator (Undercounter) slides under a lab bench; the bench opens that bay in 3D to make room for it. - CO2 incubators double-stack: drop one onto another (overlapping at least half of it) and it sits on top, on the floor or on a bench. The Research Lab template's cell culture room shows two stacks. Leave clear bench length beside each instrument for racks and pipetting; a bench that's all machine has no work surface.

   

9. 9

   Plan exam rooms with real clearances

   The Family Medical Clinic has four exam rooms about 9′3″ × 12′6″ (around 115 sq ft) along one corridor, each with an exam table, a sink cabinet, a charting desk with a stool and a guest chair, plus a procedure room with a procedure chair, IV pole and emergency cart. The FGI Guidelines (the standard most US states use for health-care construction) set an outpatient exam room at 80 sq ft minimum clear floor area, with 2 ft 8 in clear at each side and at the foot of the exam table; a hospital exam room is 120 sq ft. The template rooms clear the area easily, but their tables sit against the head wall with one side about a foot from the wall, the way many family practices furnish them. If you're designing to FGI, pull the table out so both sides and the foot have 2′8″, then measure with the Tape measure.

   

10. 10

    The whole clinic: corridor, waiting and lab

    Zoom out and the clinic reads as a typical single-corridor practice: exam rooms and the procedure room on one side, the doctor's office at the end, waiting and reception at the entrance, then the nurse station, the lab and draw room, an accessible restroom with a grab bar, a staff restroom and a break room. The corridor is about 4 ft 1 in clear wall to wall. For accessibility, the 2010 ADA Standards ask for a 60 in turning circle (304.3.1), a 30 × 48 in clear floor space at each fixture a wheelchair user must reach (305.3), and 36 in clear on accessible routes (403.5.1). The Wheelchair piece (25 × 42 in) in Clinic & Exam is a quick way to test a tight spot.

    

11. 11

    Dental office: operatories in 3D

    The Dental Office has four operatories in a row, each with a dental chair (with its light, tray and cuspidor), a dentist stool and an assistant stool, a rear cabinet with a delivery cart, a sink cabinet and a wall-arm X-ray. Sterilization has an autoclave on the counter and the X-ray room a panoramic unit. Turn the 3D view to look into the operatories from the open side: it shows at a glance whether the assistant has room on the far side of the chair and whether the rear cabinet is reachable from both stools.

    

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