Posted: 2/10/2014
The new hospital is one step closer to being ready for patients, visitors and staff with the arrival of furniture for the building. The result of an 18-month selection process, picking the new furnishings took careful planning and collaborative research across multiple hospital disciplines.
“Health care furniture is unique. Seating, for example, must meet stringent standards for infection control and durability that are not required for furniture in other venues,” said Gena English, Interior Designer and Senior Program Manager at New Parkland Hospital. “Often, health care furniture has steel-to-steel connections, double needle stitching, a wipe-out channel between the seat and back for easy cleaning and support of higher weight loads”
All of the furniture fits into three categories: systems furniture, such as office work stations; conference and dining furniture, which includes staff lounges, main dining and outdoor dining; and waiting area and patient room furniture.
“After conducting a product comparison and evaluation, manufacturers were invited to provide a small systems furniture mock up in the new Parkland hospital offices,” Gena said. “Staff was surveyed to determine what they thought of each product.”
For the waiting areas and patient room furniture, more than 250 surveys were completed to evaluate the products. The data gathered from the evaluation was used to make the final selections, which are now arriving at the new campus.