Should a pediatrician's office offer both a well and sick-child waiting room?
As I don't deal much with children this isn't something I've thought about but honestly I don't think that's a terrible idea. Separate rooms for those who are simply in for a check-up or shots versus those there because they are sick makes sense, in a way.
But at the same time what I've come to find is that many practices do not own the buildings they are located in if it's not a hospital. And that means in most cases they don't actually have a lot of say in waiting rooms and such, if there's only one in their assigned lot in the building they can't really do anything about it. Sure maybe they could somehow have some construction done to make two separate waiting rooms, but then what happens when that practice moves out and someone else moves in to their space?
It seems practical, but when a lot of these places are not in control of their space and it's up to the building manager there really isn't much to be done about it.
I also think, though, that the effect might be minimal. A child there for a check-up might still be sick just not showing signs of it yet while still being contagious. If two waiting rooms were in play it wouldn't really make sense to have them both be the same size as if there were just one, so you're actually forcing the sicker kids into closer proximity to one another while at the same time forcing potentially well-looking kids into closer proximity to kids who are actually well, if that makes any sense?