Virtual consultations are rapidly increasing across healthcare, due to the significant advantages they bring as a solution to help transform patient care and reduce the waiting list backlog.
However, this brings real estate challenges (think availability of consulting rooms) and privacy concerns (video calls with a patient from an open plan or home setting may well breach data privacy and confidentiality boundaries) which is probably why you are looking at virtual consultation booths as the solution! No doubt you will have some questions and we can help answer the following
How much does a virtual consultation booth cost?
What is the best virtual consultation booth for my use case?
Firstly, the cost all depends on the type of booth, there are a number of different modular booths available which may seem very similar at first glance, but are actually quite different in both cost and functionality:
Phone Booth
Video Booth
Flexible Telemedicine Booth
Generally, they will cost anywhere between £8,000 to £18,000.
At the lower end there is the standard phone booth with basic finishes and options, right up to the top end where you can have a pod optimized for video and to your preferences, such as including tech items, larger adjustable desks, and specific material finishes.
Let’s look at the options
How much does a Phone Booth cost?
You can expect to pay between £8,000 and £11,000 for the regular phone booth.
On the low end you get all the regular material specifications and fixed options that provide a great product at great value. This doesn’t provide much flexibility of use but will meet your need of a private booth to break out for phone calls for short periods of time up to 40-60 minutes. Beyond this you will find user comfort becomes an issue which will impact over the longer term on occupancy levels and clinician engagement with the booth as a viable space for video / phone consulting.
At the top end you can customize the booth with preferred material and cladding options to suit your environment and consider options such as a height adjustable desk, so the pod can be used either sitting or standing, making it more flexible for different uses.
View our Consult Pod to find out more about the options.
How much does a Video Booth cost?
You can expect to pay between £11,000 and £14,000 for the regular video booth but they can be up to £18,000 if you go for a wheelchair accessible version.
At the low end, as with the phone booth, you get the regular material finishes and basic options, such as the standard desk size. The pod works well, providing a great experience for virtual consultations, but not to the potential the video booth is designed to meet.
At the higher end the pod is customizable to have finishes that work for you and includes options that optimize the pod for video performance. This includes a large desk that is height adjustable and the ability to have an all-in-one PC mounted internally (the PC isn’t included in the price of the pod though!).
If a wheelchair accessible version is required to make the pod suitable for wheelchair users, this does increase the price due to modifications needed to the video pod – for example a powered door with auto-close - although the user experience is still the same.
View our Consult Plus Pod to find out more about the options.
How Much does a Flexible Telemedicine Booth cost?
The flexible telemedicine booth can cost between £12,000 and £14,000 per pod, depending on the configuration.
You may ask, how is this different to the previous options we have just looked at? This is a modular acoustic booth in a similar way, but the difference is that the modules could be re-used and even reconfigured into a different layout in the future, so a 1 person booth could become a 6 person meeting room, with the addition of some parts!
As with the other booths, there is a wide range of material finishes and the basic options are at the lower scale and the wider choice adds costs along with any extra optional features added that often prove beneficial for telemedicine and virtual consultations.
It’s hard to give costs of the flexible telemedicine booth because it is just that, flexible! It can be made to work perfectly for your environment and without an idea of design or configuration, costs can only be estimated.
View our Consult Flex Pod to find out more about the options.
Beware of extra costs!
The booths also require a delivery and installation contribution which usually is around 10% of the cost of the booth, however this depends on the delivery location and the total order size. This cost helps to ensure the pods are installed correctly and are set up to work in the best way to ensure the best possible user experience for virtual consultations.
Save with trials
Spacestor Healthcare offer a low commitment trial which can spread the cost of the booths over monthly payments. Following the trial, depending on the success, the booths can be returned or purchased. This costing per month will depend on the length of the trial, and again the product type and quantity, that said you can expect the monthly trial cost to be between £500 and £1,500 per month. Please get in touch for more detail on this trial option.
What are the differences between the booths?
Unsure which booth is correct? You can check out our video and blog on Phone Booths vs Video Booths to find out the six differences.
(This price guide is for Hospitals & Health Care providers)