USA (Aurora, CO) | norament^® 926 satura

Children's Hospital Colorado

nora rubber flooring, worth its weight in gold

Children’s Hospital Colorado, in Aurora, CO, recently renovated several of the facility’s high-traffic areas, including the emergency department (ED), ED exam rooms and cafeteria. The ED alone can see more than 250 families come through its doors on a daily basis. “nora flooring was an easy choice, when we decided to make a flooring change in these high-traffic areas,” says Collin Sherick, director of environmental services. “From the ER’s perspective, the deciding factor was the benefit nora flooring offered of little to no disruption of service. Caregivers were able to work in and around these areas – during both restoration and chemical-free maintenance processes moving forward – with no negative impact to patient care.

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“Most linoleum or luxury vinyl tile require some form of topical treatment. It’s usually very difficult to prevent scratching or gouging of products that don’t require this treatment, particularly those located in high-traffic areas,” shares Sherick, “nora provides a wax- and coating-free surface that has proven to be much better at ‘healing’ and returning to its original form when properly maintained.”

Children’s Hospital Colorado featured nora^® premium rubber flooring over a period of 10 years in one area of the facility. Unfortunately, during that time the floor was not maintained or cared for properly, leading the staff to believe the flooring was faulty. A new maintenance regimen made all the difference and returned the floor to its original just-installed look. “We were able to revitalize the floor to its new condition after a decade, and it clearly stood out in our organization. With the brightened colors, deep shine and overwhelming perception of clean, my opinion of the product changed significantly,” says Collin Sherick, director for environmental services. “Not just rubber flooring, but nora flooring will be worth its weight in gold to an organization and support service team, if cared for properly. With the right maintenance regimen, the product will provide one of the most productively efficient and best-looking floors a service team will maintain.

“Value engineering always seems to occur in the worst possible places during the construction phase. In our case, we ended up with VCT installed in our ED, ED exam rooms and cafeteria. Maintaining VCT is incredibly inconvenient to most any department; tenfold those annoyances in a pediatric ED,” says Sherick. “Closing down areas for long periods of time, caustic smells and irritating chemicals filling the air routinely caused problems for patients and caregivers in this area.”

“The rubber is an acoustically sound, soft flooring, which is not only great for sound absorption, but also safer when kids fall to the floor or sit and play on the floor,” adds Michelle Barth, interiors project manager. “The floor also helps doctors and nurses avoid some of the fatigue that comes with being on their feet all day.”

“A large portion of an EVS director’s time, focus and budget is typically related to flooring maintenance,” explains Sherick. “By having a consistent maintenance process in place with nora floors, I’ve noticed we are able to spend more energy on other aspects of the facility. This product helps make the floor much less of a concern on the director’s mind.”