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“ICU rooms are never empty – how do you get in there and clean those floors, and do it right?” said Heidi Dunbar, director of environmental services, Seattle Children’s Hospital. “nora allows the least amount of maintenance necessary, and the floors stay nicer for much longer.”
After experiencing the benefits of rubber flooring first-hand in their affiliated urgent care center, administrators at Seattle Children’s Hospital knew they wanted the same durable and easily maintained flooring to cover the majority of their new nine-story addition, named Building Hope. The new addition was born from extensive design collaboration among a highly diverse team – including clinical staff, MDs, administrators, architects, designers and, most importantly, patient families who had spent long periods of time at the hospital. noraplan environcare™ was selected to outfit more than 80,000 square feet of space, comprised of patient rooms, nursing stations, lounges, vestibules, corridors and treatment rooms.
“As a children’s hospital, we’re very unique,” said Heidi Dunbar. “Every single decision is very deliberate on how to make the kids feel most at home while still in a hospital, down to beautiful floors.”
But function was also of great importance. Regarding maintenance, Heidi said, “People are on the floor all day, and we all wear black shoes. We needed to address how to keep floors clean, and how to get in and out of an area really quickly without disturbing patients.” She continued, “nora is very low-maintenance; you never need to use chemicals. All we have to do is use water, and we auto scrub the floors. No longer the waxing, no longer the stripping – and the flooring is also ergonomic, because it is cushioned.”
Elaborating on the ergonomics, Heidi noted a distinct staff-perceived difference in how they feel with nora flooring. She said, “We’ve had several people on our staff comment on how they thought the floor was easier to walk on.”
