CASE STUDY: METHODIST MANSFIELD MEDICAL CENTER NICU

The designers of the maternity center at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center located in Mansfield, Texas, specified flooring for its acoustical and ergonomic benefits.

Methodist Mansfield Medical Center in Mansfield, Texas, has a full-service maternity center, including a licensed Level II Neonatal Center, featuring some of the latest family-centric design, amenities, and technology. In 2018, the hospital started a $8.7-million expansion and renovation of its existing 8-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), adding eight additional private rooms, family amenities, a state-of-the-art infant security system, and dedicated respiratory and lactation support spaces. The phased expansion and renovation project will enhance Methodist Mansfield’s commitment to superior clinical care for obstetric services, including high-risk mothers and premature babies.

Whitney Hendrickson, RN, CHID, EDAC, LEED AP ID+C, Interior Designer III, associate with Perkins & Will, knew exactly what type of flooring she wanted to specify for this project. After going on a tour of Pennsylvania Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia in 2017, Hendrickson fell in love with a collection of rubber-backed vinyl flooring that is ergonomically designed especially for health-care settings.

“Since I toured that facility, I have been waiting to use the flooring for the right project,” Hendrickson says. “As soon as we walked into that unit (an ICU), it was so eerie because it was unexpectedly quiet. My eyes and ears did not match up. I thought they must not have had many patients…but they did! You could see staff moving around, carts being pushed down the corridors, but I did not hear what I normally hear in an ICU. It did not feel “clinical” at all—in a good way.” This is because Hendrickson was experiencing the acoustic benefits of the specialty surfacing.

The Challenge: In addition to its acoustic benefits, Hendrickson also wanted a surface that would support staff. Prior to becoming a certified interior designer and serving as a board member for the Nursing Institute of Health-Care Design (NIHD), Hendrickson’s first career was as a pediatric nurse for bone-marrow transplants. “Being a nurse is physically labor-intensive, and exhausting and hard on your body,” she says. “I was too young to have plantar fasciitis and throbbing knee pain. Clinicians are wired to put the patient first, so on long shifts, the opportunities for respite are few and far between. I will never forget my roots and what a physical toll your body takes when working at the bedside.”

That experience led Hendrickson to serve on the NIHD Board, an organization whose mission is to engage and integrate clinical expertise into the planning and design of health-care environments. With advocacy at her core, Hendrickson wanted to look at the environment holistically and select materials that could provide ergonomic benefits to staff too.

The Solution: Hendrickson worked with Thais Pimentel, LEED AP ID+C, Interior Designer II, of Perkins and Will to specify two engineered resilient surfaces with patented technology, whereby a heterogenous vinyl sheet is fusion bonded to a 5-millimeter VCR backing. As a result of the VCR in both new products, the new surfacing significantly reduces surface-generated noise, and provides a force reduction of 11.5 percent and energy restitution of 72 percent. This enhanced ergonomic performance also reduces the force of impact related to falls. Additionally, Pimentel specified the flooring in a subtle curved pattern to assist with wayfinding and help delineate staff and family areas.

The Results: “If they only get 15 minutes to sit down, I want to give these users a floor that is going to let their body perform like an athlete’s would,” Hendrickson says. “These staff members are standing up 13 hours each day; so if I cannot change the workload, I want to at least help them take better care of themselves—even if they do not know it!” Hendrickson and Pimentel are thrilled with the surfacing at the NICU at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center and look forward to seeing the second phase of the NICU open soon. “I would love to see the flooring collection grow even more in the future,” Hendrickson adds. “This product is the right solution for a lot of environments."

CASE STUDY: PENNSYLVANIA PRESBYTERIAN MEDICAL CENTER

This ergonomically designed flooring—an engineered resilient surface comprised of heterogenous vinyl fusion bonded to a 5-millimeter vulcanized composition rubber backing—reduces the risk of injury associated with falls.

The Pennsylvania Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) is one of the premier medical centers on the East Coast. Penn Medicine’s Trauma Program alone treats more than 2,200 patients annually who have life-threatening injuries.

In an effort to support PPMC’s commitment to patients, staff, and multiple missions of clinical care, the medical center spent three years creating a new trauma center. Beginning in 2012, PPMC began designing the Pavilion for Advanced Care (PAC).

With a diversity of involved stakeholders, the many needs of the staff and the patient required a flooring product that could effectively deliver safety for the patients, enhanced ergonomic benefits for the staff, and superior acoustic properties to assure a quiet healing environment.

Project designer Colleen Harrington with Ewing Cole, the architectural firm involved with this project, was tasked with specifying a product based on four primary considerations: “Noise was a critical concern from the user, and really focused on noise generated by footfall and corridor activity,” she says. “Joint relief for the staff and ergonomics was a definite concern/objective. A wood-look aesthetic and designing a warm, comforting space that was not institutional was also important.” And last but not least, memory with respect to vertical deformation. “Indentation recovery from the weight of the beds” was important.

The hospital selected 5,000 square yards of an engineered resilient surface comprised of heterogenous vinyl fusion bonded to a 5-millimeter vulcanized composition rubber backing for the patient bays, treatment areas, corridors, and nurses’ stations. This ergonomically designed flooring reduces the risk of injury associated with falls.

“Force-reduction tests have shown that the fall impact is reduced 16.9 percent (in accordance with DIN 18032) when this flooring is installed,” says Mark Huxta, director of sales, health and wellness, Ecore. “Because of the rubber backing, this high-tech flooring offers an ergonomic solution compared to other resilient floors.”

When selecting the building materials for PAC, the hospital chose high-contrast resources and pops of bright colors to help decrease patient and visitor anxiety. Color and material transitions were also utilized to distinguish between staff, patient, and family zones within the ICU patient rooms.

With regard to its acoustic benefits when using IIC tests (in accordance with ASTM E492 and E2179), the specified flooring allows the most basic assemblies to exceed the strict IIC 50 building code requirements, reducing impact sound more than 20 decibels with no ceiling below. As mentioned, the undergraduate research study conducted by the University of Hartford’s Acoustic Program in 2014 concluded that the specially designed flooring is indeed as quiet as carpet. In fact, the new ASTM E-3133 standard for Floor Impact Sound addresses this very issue and came about as a result of the research study.