Commercial Architecture April 2017 - 24

PROJECT

flooring
they see a lot of shiny floors. It's sometimes disorienting for them."
Patient safety is front and center for Marie Keim,
director of epidemiology infection control and prevention at Reading Health System. "From an infection-prevention perspective, I think flooring is very
important in its durability," she said. "The fact that
this floor is very solid and dense provides an extra barrier for us, and it gives Environmental Services a floor
that can be cleaned easily. The surfaces are smooth; we
don't need to be concerned about residual water, bacteria, and other items going into cracks and crevices
and harboring any sort of bacteria or organisms."
With regard to a cleaning regimen that does not
require the use of chemicals and harsh cleaning products, Keim remarked, "It's always important to reduce
the need for chemicals and any sort of agents that
might potentially create drug resistance on organisms."
ADDED BONUS

She added, "I think the other positive aspect of the nora
flooring is that it resists staining, so that betadine, iodine,
and other agents that can be very offensive in appearance
won't be a problem. I also think the floor has a comfort
and an ease for our staff who are working on it. The floor
makes it much easier to stand throughout our day as we
provide services to our patients."
Looking back on the project and the selection of
The flooring provides comfort for staff that is working on it, making it easier to stand throughout the day to care for patients.

noraplan eco with nora nTx, Major summed up everyone's experience with the product. "If I was advising

fact that we do not have to un-wax or wax the floors.

"With the nora flooring, we are able to turn over pa-

someone who was selecting a flooring covering, I

The care and maintenance of the product has potentially

tient rooms very quickly-probably in half the time it

would tell them to take a very close look at a product

been the largest, greatest effect with regard to selecting

would normally take to do a floor that we have to

with regards to the overall cost and the relative cost

noraplan eco with nora nTx."

clean and wax."

over time versus other products, taking into consider-

According to Major, nora flooring was part of the

And, he appreciates the floor's low-gloss finish.

ation both the use, the durability of the product, and

original specifications for the building, but it was re-

"Historically, flooring and floor surfaces were real

the amount of time and number of people required to

stricted to the operating and procedural platforms. As

shiny and glossy. What we've come to find is patients

maintain it. When we examined this over the duration

the building design took shape, the flooring specifica-

that make up the older population have some difficul-

of this project, we found that the nora flooring with

tion grew to include approximately 95% of the square

ty with walking and getting around a facility when

nora nTx is far superior than our other choices." CA

footage of the building.
Tim Cole, director of environmental services for
Reading Health Systems, is happy with that decision.
"It's a lower maintenance product, requiring less labor
and materials. It offers as much as 20% to 30% in labor savings related to the care and maintenance of the
floor. In addition, from an environmental standpoint,

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you can clean and maintain the floor with less-caustic
chemicals and cleaners as opposed to other traditional
floor coverings." Cole can make that statement because his department maintains older areas of the hospital that have a variety of floor coverings, including
vinyl sheet goods, terrazzo, and VCT.
In addition to maintenance benefits, Cole points to
the ability to move patients through the hospital.
COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE

APRIL 2017

Watch a video on the use of rubber flooring in the hospital-commercialarchitecturemagazine.com/1704nora01
Download a pdf of the project-commercialarchitecturemagazine.com/1704nora02
Get information about the flooring-solution products-commercialarchitecturemagazine.com/1704nora03

the positive impact the flooring has upon throughput,

24

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Architecture April 2017