Exam Tables In Pediatric Offices

Is anyone willing to wager a guess why the exam tables in pediatric offices are set up so the patient is directly facing the door? It always made for an uneasy situation as the doctor entered the room.

I would say that it YOUR experience.

It isn't the rule.

I wouldn't say that's isolated just to pediatric offices. I've had plenty of adult doctors where the exam tables are situated that way. I really don't think they plan it out that way on purpose. It's just that's how the rooms are setup (counters, sink, etc) and they have to fit the exam table in somehow.

Now, I have been in some exam rooms where they do go to extra lengths to make sure you're not exposed when the door opens. I remember one office where they even had a special "visual guard" on the inside of the door that blocked the view from the crack of the door when it's opened. Basically it covered things up so no body could get a peek at you from the crack in the door. And in those rooms the exam table was always situated on the back side of the door. So when it opened it was more or less private.

On the other extreme, I've been in some exam rooms that line a long hallway that is completely visible to the waiting room. Anybody in the waiting room could look up at just the right time when an exam room door opens and see you sitting there on the table.

I don't think it's any kind of uniform rule or policy but I do remember the tables at the places i went to as a kid were more likely to be in the middle of the room or jutting out from the wall than against it and parallel to it. Maybe to allow the doctor to move around the kid rather than have the kid move, or for parents or a nurse to be able to be in close proximity if the kid was nervous.

Ours the one my sister and I went to and everyone else in the town was to the side and against the wall. That way none of us could escape. She had different rooms for different things. Some for OB/GYN which the table was to the side and some facing away from the door. Some for normal things like if you had a cold etc. Those were facing the door. There was also a room set up like an operating room. I was the tomboy but my sister was always the one getting injured. This room had the table set up in the center with a surgical light over it. The brushed stainless steel cabinets etc.. My sister had to have stitches in her foot a few times. To watch her walk by that room was funny. She was scared to death of it until she was a lot older. The joys of growing up in a small lakeside town.

The doctor we saw had the tables against and parallel to the wall. Mom, if with us, sat in chair near the door. Someone on here mentioned this was to keep us from escaping...I was always too scared to move anyway!

These days most exam rooms are narrow and the exam table is easily visible from the door. When I was kid, there was no concern for modesty and the door was frequently opened when I was undressed. I was weighed in my underwear in the hall.

Where an exam table is positioned depends on how big the exam room is. As someone said below, most exam rooms are small so once the built in counter and desk for the doctor is on one wall, that probably leaves only one other long wall for the table. I don't remember much about pediatric exam rooms because I was too young to pay attention to that or we got physicals at the military base where my Dad was stationed and there were big open exam and treatment areas for boys where there were several exam tables in rows and several kids getting examined or treated at the same time. Once in my teens, I had sports physicals at school so those weren't in doctor's offices.

As an adult, I have seen several exam rooms where the exam table faces the door because there wasn't another place to put it. Some of those exam rooms have been very small where the table only fit one way. I had one doctor whose exam room was larger and his exam table sat in the middle of the room. He had a couple of chair on one wall and the scales. On the other wall, he had a desk and two chairs, one for him and for the patient I guess. That is the same doctor that i wrote about before who left me sitting in my briefs on the exam table while he left the room to take a phone call or get something and he left the sliding door partly open while he was gone. I was facing away from the door but anyone walking in the hallway would have seen my backside sitting there while he was away. My current doctor has an exam table that also faces the door so the last time I was there I was sitting in my underwear on the end of the table nearest the door when the doctor came in. Unless someone was walking by at that moment and had exactly the right view over his shoulder, no one would have seen me. I wasn't told anything by his nurse other than to strip to my underwear and take a seat on the table to wait. It didn't feel awkward because that has been a regular instruction and setup for me as a kid and adult if no gown was provided.

My current office has the exam tables placed at a diagonal in the corner of the room. It's positioned so that it's not visible when the door opens. My pediatrician had the exam table flush against the back wall completely visible upon entering.

Besides someone accidentally walking in on you, really the only way to be seen in your exam gown/clothes is if someone walks by at the exact moment the doctor is entering or leaving the room.

For me, it's less how the table is placed than traffic in the hallway. I've been in a huge room with uncovered windows, desk, chairs, table, screen to undress behind, scale, equipment. I've been in a tight fit, but with a curtain which could be pulled across blocking the view. Currently, the exam table is to the right, so the door opens but not on the table, and, in any case, the room is at the end of a hallway which doesn't have patients and staff passing by often.

Sure most of the time it's just whatever fits best for the space, but it is an interesting angle coming from the medfet side.

Growing up my doctor'd office always had them perpendicular to the door.

My pediatrician had the exam tables out of sight. When she opened the door you could see my mom sitting on a chair. I was on the exam table which was sort of behind the door, not visible to the hall.

My docs exam tables were not facing the door. I don’t know if this experience is just you or if I am one of the few that does not have this. I don’t really think it matters where the exam table is facing.

I think it depends on the size of the office and the age of the office; as a kid and up to my 20's the offices were rather large so the exam table was in the middle of the room. Later as an adult, one Dr. office the rooms were small so there was not really any place to set the table but facing the door. Although it was angled. I really never gave it a thought.

My doctor has a very small office. The exam table faces the door and I would say there is no more than 5 feet of space outside the door to the desk of the office manager.

Growing up, the exam table was butted up against the cinder block wall and the headrest was closest to the door so if anyone came in, I'm sure they'd see you. But it was a very narrow room, so that was probably the most discreet layout they could manage in there. (Of course, if anyone came in, you had no idea who it was.) As an adult, most of the exam tables I've been on were situated so that whenever someone would come in, the open door would sort of block how much of me folks in the hall could see. Either way, you never had complete privacy.

At my doctor's the exam table was next to the door, but it wasn't a big problem since the patients usually didn't undress and, by the way, they were "covered" by the doctor when he stood for the visit.

I always remember that the exam table was very short for me, after I turned 7-8 I needed to bend my knees for the abdominal exam LOL

By the way, the doctor was alone in his office, there were no receptionists or assistants entering the room during the visit, so total privacy, even for the very young ^_^

When bending over the receptionist's lap for injections in my youth I always faced the door, probably to prevent me from seeing the shots being prepared by the doctor. When his nurse gave me injections, the exam table over which I bent was against an outside wall (probably for the same reason) and I remember looking out of the window at the people in the street below, wishing that I could trade places with any of them.

When I was seeing a pediatrician, I don't think there was much thought about where they placed the exam tables in the room. My concern at least as a teen, was having to go into to the hallway to be weighed in my underpants. Hoping upon hope that no one would be in the hallway.

The exam table in the exam room was very small so the exam table would be pushed to one side of the wall and the legs would face the door. On the opposite side would be the sink and the cabinets and then a small space for the scale. The door was a pocket door that would slide in & out of the wall. Next to the door facing the exam table was a chair. Anyone that would sit on the chair would be facing the foot of the exam table and have full view of the exam.

...Next to the door facing the exam table was a chair. Anyone that would sit on the chair would be facing the foot of the exam table and have full view of the exam.

I remember a visit to a different pediatrician once when one of my brothers and I were both getting a physical. The room was sort of L shaped and had an exam table in the middle of one part of the L (the door was at the end of the other) and two places with chairs - two chairs nearer the door and two to the left of the table (on the right of the table was a counter and cabinet with equipment and supplies). Our parents went to sit in the chairs by the door and the doctor said to them, "let's have mom and dad sit over here so you can be included in what we're doing."

My pediatricians office had several doctors in it, a rather large office. Some of the exam rooms had the table directly in front of the door while some of them had the table off to the side of the room, even though the exam table was still in view of the door. I always remember sitting on the exam table and covering my privates when I heard the knock on the door even though I still had underwear on. I was so embarrassed about my body as a kid.

At my pediatrician the table was on the right side of the room, perfectly seen from the door. But could be blocked by a curtain, that fortunately for my young self was always on, so no one could see you from the door.

The exam room was in the back of the Doctors office.. as you enter the examination table was on the left side against a wall. Once the doors were open you could see the exam table from the waiting room. One the back of the door there was a full length mirror hanging, once closed. there was a second door with an eye chart hanging on it.

I saw the same pediatrician from ages 11 through 18. He had offices in two locations. In one office, the exam room was through a small anteroom which was the area in which the accompanying parent waited. The exam room was beyond this and was a large rectangular room in which the exam table was against the rear wall on the left. The table was out of the line of vision from the parent in the anteroom. This was the only office in which I saw him accompanied by my mother so I was grateful that she was not able to see me with my briefs pulled down. In the other office, the exam table was against the back wall across from the door. I always saw him alone in this office. I would be standing directly in front of the door and always worried that someone would come in while I was standing with my briefs pulled down.

My pediatrician's office was exactly like this. All four exam rooms had the exam table facing the door. When the doctor came in he was looking right at me when he opened the door.