Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT
noraplan environcareTM Brings Color, Cranes and Comfort to Yale-New Haven’s Pediatric Emergency Department
A visit to a hospital emergency department can be a frightening experience for a child. Sensitive to this, administrators at Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT, sought to create a warm, colorful, child-friendly environment for their youngest patients as they expanded the hospital’s pediatric emergency department.
According to Brad Bevers, director of facilities design and construction at the busy urban hospital, the floor covering they selected for the renovation project played an important role in achieving their goal. ”We need to ensure that the space is welcoming and child-friendly,” he noted. “This is especially true because, we’re treating young children who aren’t feeling well and are in an unfamiliar setting.” noraplan environcare™ was selected to run throughout the renovated portion of the emergency department.
Yale-New Haven Hospital is a not-for-profit, 944-bed healthcare facility that is affiliated with the Yale University School of Medicine and includes the 202-bed Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital and the 72-bed Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital. The hospital operates both adult and pediatric emergency departments that together see nearly 100,000 patients per year.
“We expanded our pediatric emergency department to support the increasing volume of patients who use this facility,” Bevers explained. “The project included five new exam spaces, a new staff work area and additional renovations to the existing department.” Salvatore Associates, Needham, MA, served as architect for the project, and CAMA, Inc., New Haven, developed the interior design.
According to CAMA designer Elizabeth O’Brien, the search for a floor covering that offered key performance features as well as a bright, cheerful color palette, led the hospital to noraplan environcare. “They were attracted to the floor’s no-wax finish and its promise of easy maintenance, as well as the floor’s resistance to betadine and other substances present in a hospital setting,” O’Brien recalled. “Comfort underfoot was also important to the medical staff, who spend long hours on their feet.”
But, just as important was selecting an inviting color palette that could offer a wide-range of designs for the pediatric space.
O’Brien selected four colors for the New Haven project – a neutral field color along with blue, yellow and orange – and tied her design into the origami theme that runs throughout the children’s hospital. Two large origami cranes appear in the new floor, one facing the original portion of the emergency department and the other looking to the renovated space, effectively bridging the old and the new.
With the new flooring, the hospital was able to carry the origami theme into the renovated space. A folded paper ribbon pattern runs down the hallway and brightly colored patterns decorate the floors in each of the five exam rooms for a unique look.
Bevers said the hospital desires floors that are durable and easy to maintain. Maintenance of the nora floor system is simple when compared to VCT, requiring no waxes and strippers, and the floor covering offers long-term durability and environmental benefits.
This project represents the first time that O’Brien has worked with a nora product. “The nora sales rep was great about walking me through the process and answering all my questions,” she said. “M. Frank Higgins Flooring Contractors did an equally great job installing the floor, and the colors were just perfect – unique because there weren’t really any competitive no-wax products that offered such great colors. I’d definitely be confident specifying it again.”
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