Dubai Mall Medical Centre

Bloomingdale’s, Giorgio Armani, and Catherine Malandrino aren’t the only major imports at the Burj Khalifa, the 2,600-foot-tall United Arab Emirates tower formerly known as the Burj Dubai. On the third story, health care based on a Western model is offered at the Dubai Mall Medical Centre, an NBBJ-designed alternative to local public options.

Whether circumstances call for an echocardiogram, a capped tooth, or a touch of Botox, traffic is heavy and truly multicultural: local elites rubbing shoulders with expats from Asia, Europe, and the U. S. To avoid an “airport lounge” feeling, senior lead designer Karen Eskandari explains, her team prepared a mood video exploring the sensory aspects of a visit to the medical center. What would it smell like? How would a door handle feel?

The 60,000-square-foot project borrows luxury-hospitality elements such as marble flooring. A color palette emerged when NBBJ pixellated photographs of the region’s landscape: taupe, pearlized cream, white, silver blue, and sea blue. Water, the ultimate luxury for desert dwellers, became a metaphor not only in terms of color but also in terms of shapes. CNC-milled MDF wall panels ripple like the surface of a pond.

Imagining how rain puddles, Eskandari designed free-form carpet insets to anchor separate seating groups in the spacious central waiting area. Semicircular ceiling tracks allow sheers, highlighted by recessed LED fixtures, to be pulled around each grouping for partial privacy. The sofas and ottomans inside are round or curved in deference to the region’s traditional flowing clothing, prone to snagging on sharp corners. It’s seating that would not appear at all out of place in the designer shoe department at Bloomingdale’s.

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CHICAGO, IL (June 14, 2010) – Pallas Textiles and KI, longtime providers of textiles and furniture for healthcare design, today were recognized with Best of NeoCon and Editor’s Choice awards, respectively. The Entwined Collection from Pallas won a Healthcare Fabrics Gold award, while KI’s Soltice II Recliner earned an Editor’s Choice in the Healthcare Seating category.

“Entwined and Soltice II exemplify our approach to providing solutions and expertise for healthcare designers to create healing, comfortable environments that meet the needs of patients, families and staff,” said Shawn Green, vice president, product management, KI. “We’re honored to receive these prestigious awards.”

The Entwined Collection, the latest collaboration between Pallas Textiles and designer Laura Guido Clark, contributes to the quality of healthcare environments by creating an air of comfort and solace for those who need it most: patients and family members. Its simple lines form intricate patterns, delicate shapes, playing on light and shadow. This unique collection is comprised of four patterns (Running Stitch, On the Fringe, Interlaced and Unraveled) and one solid (Unspun).

The Soltíce II Recliner is a seating solution that offers enhanced versatility for healthcare environments, while providing durable construction, intuitive features and elegant design. While accommodating the need for comfort and safety, the Soltíce II Recliner features central-locking casters with 360-degree rotation, allowing caregivers to complete tasks with ease. Its simple, elegant design coordinates with a broad collection of other Soltíce products to create a consistent look throughout a healthcare facility.

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Introducing the Herman Miller Healthcare Compass™ System

We’re excited to announce the launch of the Compass system, a new approach to modular furnishing systems for patient rooms, clinical care areas, exam rooms, and other clinical spaces in acute care and ambulatory care facilities.

The perfect healthcare space today will not be perfect tomorrow. Healthcare organizations face an ongoing challenge in managing their facilities: while treatment and care processes continually evolve, many healthcare spaces are not designed to adapt.

Compass helps navigate change. A modular system of interchangeable components for hospital and outpatient facilities, Compass is used to create applications for patient rooms, exam rooms, caregiver work areas, and other clinical spaces. More..

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KI Furniture Helps Medical center

GREEN BAY, WI (Feb 2010) – Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, WA., recently completed a $7.8 million expansion to its River Pavilion that houses the new Don & Lori Watts Pediatric Center. The new children’s department offers a higher level of care to pediatric patients, allowing local children who have cancer to receive treatment locally, instead of having to travel. Following research into best practices in children’s hospital design and patient-centered care, Curtis Group Architects LTD (Dallas, TX) chose furniture from KI to help create a welcoming and comforting environment for sick children and their families.

The 25,000-square-foot pediatric department expands the hospital’s capacity to treat children from 8 semi-private rooms to 20 private rooms. Each of the private rooms feature a KI Daybed Sofa Sleeper that pulls out into a bed, allowing parents to stay comfortably with their children in the hospital. All rooms feature a soothing underwater theme designed to help lessen the fear and anxiety associated with visiting a hospital.

“We are amazed by the amount of creativity and imagination that was poured into the creation of this facility,” said Don Thornton, Director of Plant Operations, Kadlec Regional Medical Center. “The furniture that fills its hallways, patient rooms and waiting areas complement the relaxing surroundings and offer an added element of comfort for the families who need it most.”

Contributing to the relaxing atmosphere of the children’s floor is a private family room with kitchen and dining facilities. Inside, KI’s Soltice Lounge Furniture adds to the room’s resort style atmosphere with a modern design where parents, siblings and relatives can gather for family time.

The fifth floor children’s department features a fifteen foot curved, 800-gallon saltwater fish tank in the lobby and a welcoming waiting room with fireplace. Each of the patient rooms are uniquely named after a sea creature and feature a hand-painted story about the animal on the inside wall of the room. Throughout the facility, the floors feature sea creatures cut out and inlaid in the linoleum.

“We designed the patient rooms with one thing in mind—putting the children and families at ease during their stay,” said Jennifer Hodges, Interior Designer, Curtis Group Architects LTD. “The concept behind the ‘Under the Sea’ theme was to create a healing, fun and educational environment for children ranging from infant to eighteen years of age and their families. KI’s healthcare furniture and expertise helped us create an environment that enables family members to be an integral part of the healing process.”

The free-flowing concept of the nurse stations enhances the ‘Under the Sea’ look, including the design and colors of the KI Impress chairs and KI Torsion on the Go that emphasize the theme and comfort of the space. Video-conferencing equipment was also installed to help local doctors and nurses stay in daily contact with pediatric specialists at Seattle Children’s Hospital, with which Kadlec has a partnership.

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2010 FGI Guidelines for Healthcare Acoustics

Kenric Van Wyk | acousticsbydesign.com | Healthcare | January 18th, 2010

The 2010 FGI (Facility Guidelines Institute) Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities was published this month and adopted as building code by most states. The new guidelines are the culmination of over five years of collaborative work by researchers, architects, engineers, and acoustical consultants to solve the problems of speech privacy and excessive noise in hospitals. The guidelines are effective immediately for the design of all healthcare facilities. For perspective, consider the 2006 Guidelines which mandated single patient rooms in hospitals. As a result, single patient rooms are the absolute standard in healthcare design today. This was an overnight seismic shift in policy that affected all healthcare building projects. Well, the 2010 Guidelines are no different in their sweeping reforms, addressing a whole new dimension of healthcare design, namely: acoustics, noise, and HIPAA speech privacy laws.

Controlling sound in a healthcare facility is, of course, not as easy as turning down a big knob on the wall. Sound and vibration in a healthcare setting comes from a variety of locations and is a systematic problem. According to JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) excessive noise raises blood pressure, extends patient stays, and can be a safety concern. Thus, for a solution to be effective, it must be holistic and comprehensive. The acoustical portion of the guideline is extensive and covers a wide range of issues including exterior noise to the community, internal noise isolation of patient rooms, speech privacy of your medical information, and vibration isolation for mechanical equipment.

The new 2010 FGI Guidelines, published in conjunction with the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) of the American Hospital Association (AHA), is the kind of reform that is really needed to promote good healthcare today. Your conversations with your doctor about your sensitive medical condition will remain confidential. Sleeping in your hospital bed will be relaxing and comfortable – a respite from the typical noisy patient room

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Bretford’s new Microbe Barrier Technologies

Bretford Manufacturing, Inc., manufacturer of dependable furniture products that improve how people work and learn, is the first to offer multi-surface antimicrobial finishes on more than 50 different tables and carts for learning and training environments. Bretford’s new Microbe Barrier Technologies™ antimicrobial surface protection reduces the growth of bacteria, mold, mildew and fungi by 99.99 percent for the life of the product. Available for order now, the Bretford tables and carts with these finishes are intended to help prevent the spread of germs and contribute to the health and well-being of children and adults.

 According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 82 million students and staff are returning to K-12 and higher education environments in the United States this fall. “There is heightened concern about the spread of germs, especially this year with all the flu precautions,” said Mikel Briggs, president of Bretford Manufacturing, Inc. “The time was right for us to do our part by providing an added line of defense against sickness-related germs in schools and offices.”

Research at the University of Arizona has found that classrooms are some of the most germ-filled public places. Teachers’ workspaces are more bacteria-laden than workspaces of other professions because of the constant contact with children. This research also showed that every 60 seconds, a working adult touches as many as 30 objects, and that surfaces play a role in the transmission of viruses and bacteria that cause illness. If these surfaces are not effectively cleaned, and then are touched by individuals, the transfer of disease-causing microbes can begin, resulting in cross-contamination.

“Studies report that good hand hygiene and surface cleaning are still the number-one ways to reduce the transfer of germs,” continued Briggs. “To complement these efforts, Bretford’s tables and carts with antimicrobial multi-surface protection can help prevent the spread of additional germs, which is especially important for schools and offices at this time”.

About Microbe Barrier Technologies Antimicrobial Surface Protection Bretford’s Microbe Barrier Technologies are a blend of polymers and other substances that are coated onto the tables and carts. These finishes do not change the physical or mechanical characteristics of the wood and metal products. The coatings use either a physical or chemical reaction to prevent a disease-causing microbe – or germ – from multiplying. Through extensive studies, these colorless, odorless finishes have been found to be safe for people and effective against a broad spectrum of bacteria, mold, mildew and fungi. According to the standard methods AATCC Test Method 100 and JIS Z 2801, microbe population reductions of 99.99 percent can be achieved.

Bretford Tables and Carts With Microbe Barrier Technologies Currently, more than 50 different tables and carts are available with Microbe Barrier Technologies finishes. Models from Bretford’s Connections Series work centers, Quattro Series classroom and activity tables and RHOMBII Series training tables will have these coatings as well as brand new edges for a modern look. In addition, models from the company’s laptop and technology cart lines will also have the new antimicrobial surface protection.

Availability Bretford’s tables and carts with Microbe Barrier Technologies are available for order now and will begin shipping on October 1, 2009. For more information, please call 1-610-974-7990.

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Premier member benefits and savings from this new agreement:

• Herman Miller February 2007 prices in effect through June 2010.
• Expanded committed volume tiers offer more savings for facilities that standardize
  on Herman Miller.
• Purchases on this contract can be combined with those on the Patient Room
  & Systems Furniture agreement to reach higher tiers, better discounts, and
  greater savings.
• Greater choice for the entire healthcare facility.

Contract Information:

Clinical Modular Casework
Premier Contract Number: PP-FA-160
HMHC Healthcare Dealer Contract
Number: M60800

Patient Room & Systems Furniture
Premier Contract Number: PP-FA-140
HMHC Healthcare Dealer Contract
Number: M60400

For more information contact Corporate Environments at 610-974-7990.

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Herman Miller, Inc. (NASDAQ: MLHR), today announced that it has acquired Nemschoff , Inc. (“Nemschoff”).

Nemschoff is a manufacturer of high-quality, leading-edge design and is recognized as a market leader in healthcare furnishings, with specific strength in soft seating and the patient care environment. Many of the Nemschoff family of products are also specified in the commercial office and education markets. The company’s headquarters and largest operations are located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, with additional manufacturing in Sioux Center, Iowa. Nemschoff has distribution across the United States and in Canada. More..

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ER1 in Washington D.C.

Herman Miller recently published a solution essay based on the ER One project piloted at Washington Hospital Center in the U.S. Capital that explains how design can afford a normally overcrowded space the adaptability to adjust to an influx of patients in the event of a natural catastrophe or terrorist attack.

Transforming the Emergency Department Solution Essay

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