Improving healthcare environments with sustainable rubber flooring

Managers and owners of healthcare facilities are tasked with ensuring an environment that is conducive to the health and safety of staff and patients. This means selecting materials and maintaining them in ways that promote a healthy, comfortable and productive environment in which to work and heal.

As the market leader, nora systems provides a complete flooring system that is quiet, safe and comfortable underfoot, while being permanently resilient and helping reduce fatigue and strain on backs and joints. The floorings have extremely low VOCs, aiding indoor air quality, supporting the healing process and enhancing comfort for patients, staff, and visitors.

Comfort Underfoot Reduces Strain

While appropriate footwear can help reduce the harmful effects of prolonged standing and walking, nora rubber floor coverings offer an important weapon in the battle against muscle fatigue and aching backs, legs, and feet. Its high-quality content and structure make nora rubber flooring especially resilient, easing the stress of walking and standing, ensuring comfort underfoot and allowing staff to concentrate on their work rather than the pain in their feet. This same resiliency makes it easier for staff to move carts, wheelchairs and other equipment across rooms and down hallways. At the same time, it offers important slip-resistant properties and can provide a softer landing than other floor coverings, minimizing the impact of falls or missteps.

Easy Maintenance Saves Time and Money

Rubber flooring’s dense, non-porous surface resists chemicals and disinfectants, such as betadine. Most spills can be wiped up easily without any staining, and the floor can be cleaned simply with a mop and little more than water. Harsh cleaning chemicals, waxes, specialty coatings or strippers are not required. This eliminates the need for labor-intensive stripping and re-coating, which saves money on cleaning products and labor.

The floor’s simple cleaning regimen also means that large areas of a facility do not need to be out of service while wax is applied and allowed to dry. This is especially important in busy healthcare facilities that operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and translates to fewer, less intrusive interruptions for patients and the medical personnel treating them.

No Fumes Means Better Indoor Air Quality

Additionally, the absence of fumes associated with harsh cleaning products, waxes and sealants contributes to improved indoor air quality, as does the absence of PVCs, plasticizers, and halogens in the flooring. This, in turn, helps create an environment that safeguards health and promotes healing, especially for patients with respiratory conditions and allergies. nora rubber floor coverings have third-party low VOC emissions and content certification from numerous organizations throughout the world, including Blue Angel and GREENGUARD Gold.

The floor also offers healthcare facilities a durable solution, even where heavy equipment and furnishings are moved regularly and foot traffic is heavy. In fact, the lifespan of rubber flooring can be as long as 30 years, reducing the need for frequent removal and disposal and delivering long-term savings.

In addition, rubber flooring provides electrostatic dissipative properties that protect the hospital’s investment in sensitive instruments and electronic equipment, eliminating malfunctions or damage caused by electrostatic charges.

Quiet Supports Concentration and Healing

All of this equipment, as well as the hustle and bustle of a busy healthcare facility, can create a noisy environment — one with the potential to distract staff members and prevent patients from getting the rest they need. The noise abatement properties of rubber flooring can address issues related to noise. In fact, rubber floor coverings have been shown to attenuate 70 percent of unwanted noise and reduce sound by as much as 17 decibels.