Jill Gocal, a Nurture Independent Representative in Missouri, Paige Solomon and Katie Truitt of Color Art Integrated Interiors, Nurture Dealer in Missouri, recently shepherded Empath through a recliner evaluation process at a large Midwestern healthcare system, and the results were nothing short of spectacular!

The evaluation process consisted of 12 recliners that could be utilized for 10 different departments within this hospital's system. In order to decide which recliners would be available for purchase by each specific department, the recliner had to first be approved by the healthcare systems review committee. This committee consisted of: Ergonomics, Design & Construction, Housekeeping, Facilities, Clinical Specialists, Infection Prevention and Finance.

The 10 different departments included Patient Room, Medical Surgery, Oncology, Outpatient Recovery, Pediatric, Bariatric, Dialysis/Pheresis, ICU and Ortho. From the overwhelming response to Empath, Nurture was short-listed for 8 out of the 10 departments. This means anytime a project is in need of a recliner, Empath has a great chance of being selected.
 
Jill was able to be a part of the meeting to provide insight on Empath as well as demo the recliner to the hospital review committee. Some of the feedback that was received was "Amazing recliner", "Great to see everything was thought through", "Easy and intuitive", "I like this one the best", and "I have never seen a recliner that can outfit as many different applications as this one". This last comment came from Ergonomics, which among the group of decision makers has the most influence.

Features that Ergonomics identified as most important on their comment sheet were a foot rest with a lever to initiate its opening, a button or tab to initiate recline, and central locking, particularly if the locking mechanism did not affect the overall seat height of the chair. Empath passed these categories with flying colors, demonstrating its excellent design as well as its versatility in qualifying in so many different departments of the hospital. Empath was originally eliminated, due to the evaluation process occurring before Empath samples were available, but Jill and Color Art together were able to convince them to hold off a bit longer to see Empath before the evaluation process was complete. The rest is history!

San Francisco, CA - On May 2nd, Nurture AHM's Robin Goldhawk and Kathleen Lapidus hosted an event entitled "Connecting Care to Design: A Day of Dialogue" in the Steelcase San Francisco showroom. The agenda spanned from 12:30pm to 6:15pm and featured 4 presentations, which averaged around 30 attendees each. Most of the attendees were from the Bay Area healthcare design community, and some came from southern California and elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest. The presentations were very well received, garnering comments of "Very informative - enjoyed case studies & showing trends in healthcare (community, patient-centered/wellness) and available resources" and "Outstanding! Great Topic".

The topics were as diverse as "Elder-friendly healthcare environments and how they can improve outcomes in acute care settings" to "Transforming Primary Care Environments using Evidence-based Design", and provided the audience the opportunity to receive CEU credit toward EDAC, AIA and IIDA certification.
 
Intermingled between the sessions were well placed breaks with food and beverage, which provided the Nurture team, consisting of Robin, Kathleen, Ryan Grote, Nurture Regional Sales Manager, and also Jan Carlson, Nurture VP of Marketing and Product Development, with the opportunity to introduce Empath to the audience members (to much positive feedback!), and for the audience members to mingle and discuss the content from the previous session.
 
The experience was very natural and engaging, and the audience stayed connected through each of the sessions. It is crucial in an event like this to make the presentations as compelling and relevant as possible, and the industry thought leaders Robin and Kathleen were able to secure, from institutions such as the Center for Health Design, Kaiser Permanente, and San Francisco General Hospital made the entire experience unique and worthwhile. This event definitely helped advance the Nurture brand to a new high in the minds of the audience members.
 
Nurture AHM's in Southern California are already making plans to duplicate this event, and with the proper planning, it too will be a great success!