Flooring sets the stage for all healthcare activities. It contributes to a first impression as people enter and move about a healthcare facility, shaping their opinions about the organization’s ability to provide safe, quality and comfortable care. Flooring is a complex, integrated system that consists of the sub-floor for support and the floorcovering and surface finish, which together create the walking and rolling surface for a vast range of care delivery activities and equipment. Contributing both to the building’s structural integrity and healing aesthetic, flooring occupies every square inch of measured healthcare facility space, providing a major lifecycle investment opportunity to help realize positive healthcare outcomes, especially those now linked to healthcare reimbursement through the enactment of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
In this paper, research findings, industry standards and best practices related to floorcoverings, the floor’s most visible component that provides the final walking surface, were examined. Using an evidence-based design approach, how flooring/floorcoverings can contribute to the following performance improvement goals were explored:
1. Reduce slips, trips and falls
2. Reduce patient and staff injuries associated with falls
3. Reduce noise levels
4. Reduce staff fatigue
5. Reduce surface contamination and potential risk of Healthcare-Associated
Infections (HAI)
6. Improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)
7. Improve patient and family satisfaction
8. Represent the best return on investment
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