TAHLEQUAH — Waiting in a typical reception area of most medical or dental offices can be a time-consuming, somber, and nerve-wracking experience.  

Traditionally, patients are offered a cushioned seat, outdated magazines and maybe a television perched near the ceiling in the far corner of the room to help ease the clinical affects of the room. These small comforts are believed to distract the patient from thinking about the needle piercing their gums for dental work or having blood work performed for what could be life-altering news.

Some local practitioners understand the stress their patients face, and are taking steps to alleviate it – before they even enter the exam rooms.

Sandra Murphy, office manager for dentist Tom McConnell and his associates, said the Tahlequah dental office offers its patients a waiting room that can be almost like a “home away from home.”

“We have sofas, chairs and a fresh-water fish tank – things you would have in your living room,” she said. “We even have a room for children. There are toys and built-ins. It has utilitarian things that kids can’t mess up. We also try to keep the [waiting} room scented so it doesn’t smell like a dentist’s office.”

Ironically, the scents Murphy uses – like the smell of caramel or baking bread – may cause a patient’s mouth to water for the very thing that created the need for a dental visit, but the familiar scent can be pacifying as they await their turn in the dentist’s chair.

“And I try to offer up-to-date magazines,” she said. “I have numerous plants. We have cable TV so they can actually watch a show they like. Usually you get to watch something on your health, but here you can watch cartoons or whatever you prefer.”

Another Tahlequah dentist, Brant Rouse, said his Family and Restorative Dentistry office wants patients to feel like they’re entering a place where everybody knows their names, just like “Norm” did on the television series “Cheers.” Making the patient feel at ease from the moment he or she walk in helps establish a sense of familiarity and comfort.

“We like to think we’re really good at customer service,” Rouse said. “We try to welcome people into the office by name and make sure they know we know who they are. We don’t use a traditional waiting room setting. We have a salt-water fish tank. The sounds of it .. the fish swimming .. it’s kinda cool. The kids love it. One of the things I do get a lot of compliments on is, we keep updated magazines.  We don’t do TVs [in the wait area] because it can be distracting, but we do have tvs in our treatment rooms. You can watch TV or even DVDs. You can watch a movie if you’re here for a longer period of time.”

Though dental offices can create an atmosphere of visiting a friend’s home with sofa seating, aquarium aesthetics and kitchen smells, offering a reception area that invites a person to kick off his shoes and order a cold drink is not as easy to present in a hospital setting. The presence of mortality invades the second a patient steers his car into the parking lot. In a hospital, patient comfort usually comes through the experienced and skilled abilities of medical providers.

Josh Reasor, customer relations and marketing director for Tahlequah City Hospital, wants patients and their families to feel a warm presence of healing.

“There’s  been collective efforts through different departments to provide new furniture in the waiting rooms,” Reasor said. “We’ve upgraded in the waiting area. There are some new TVs. We’re trying to change and keep up with the times. We have new blinds that offer translucent lighting that makes for a warmer feeling. ”

Presenting a newcomer with a warm drink is tradition, and TCH now has a Starbucks – called The Coffee House – on the first floor in its cafe to extend that customary offering to family and friends visiting a loved one.

“There’s some leather seating downstairs and they can get a good coffee,” said Reasor.

“There’s Wi-Fi available throughout the hospital. That’s also a great thing for our patients when they’re in their rooms. You’re sick and want to get better, [but you] have all of this idle time. If you have a laptop and have the capability to get online, Wi-Fi is available.”

Reasor said another approach TCH is taking to help provide avenues of comfort to patients and their families is through works of art, which can lead thoughts away from the present moment and deep into curiosity about the images, colors or shapes before them. Local artist Stephen Wood donated one of his blown-glass creations to help seed the healing effects of art and culture.

“I asked him if he had any artwork he could donate to the hospital, and he said one of the newest things he’d been working on was blown glass,” Reasor said of the glass bowl, valued at $2,300, now on display in Starbucks. “Stephen Wood has been somewhat instrumental in getting us in the direction we’re headed. Art really adds to the element of puttting yourself in another place. It adds to the healing.”

Reasor said TCH is ordering 50 oil productions by well-known artists like Van Gogh, Monet, and Renoir to be put on display for patients and visitors to enjoy. The works are scheduled to begin going up by the middle of February.

“You may have seen pictures in your humanities class and thought you’d love to see that piece of art in the Louvre in Paris or the Museum of Modern Art,” said Reasor. “Stephen Wood donating that one piece of art has really transpired bring art and culture into the hospital. The transformation will start next month.”