A versatile and unique patient exam table from Brewer Company won the overall Best of Competition in the Nightingale Awards 2023 judged by 14 healthcare system facility planners and designers, as well as interior design firm healthcare practice leaders, during Healthcare Design Conference + Expo 2023 in New Orleans, November 4-7. Healthcare Design magazine in partnership with the Center for Health Design and The Healthcare Design Conference + Expo present the annual competition that is managed by Eileen McMorrow, editor-in-chief, The McMorrow Reports/Healthcare, who founded the competition in 1994.  

The Nightingale Awards — the industry’s leading program to recognize products related to the healthcare built environment — are named for Florence Nightingale, a tireless advocate for the improvement of care and conditions in military and civilian hospitals in the 1800s. Among this year's winners are industry leaders Accurate Lock & Hardware (Gold and Innovation Awards for Secure Cabinet Ligature Resistant Sliding Door System for Medical Gases), C.F. Stinson (Gold Award for Natural Attraction), HMTX Commercial/Teknoflor (Silver Award for Symphony Collection HPD) and Mayer Fabrics (Silver Award for Seaqual Initiative Privacy Curtains: Serene & Tranquility).

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The NextUp network delivers programs and experiences that advance women at every stage of their career, accelerate workplace equity and drive business growth. To expand its reach and include women in facility management (FM), planning, interior design, architecture and engineering, NextUp offers education and engagement sessions every month. Upcoming sessions include:

Empowering Women in the Modern Workforce, an in-person event for the Atlanta chapter.

November Member & Non-Member Coffee Hour. An Atlanta-area Coffee Hour at LaMadeleine in Dunwoody, GA, for Networking. Nov. 17 event is for new, returning, active and potential members. The chapter meets the 3rd Friday of every month.

Fostering Community: Fostering Belonging, is session 4 of the virtual DEI Fostering Community Workshop series. Culture and inclusion can directly impact outcomes for organizations and individuals. Belonging does not just “happen.” What can we do to foster belonging?

CAU: A Culture of Silence: Dealing with Grief at Work. Paurvi Bhatt, former VP of Philanthropy and president of the Medtronic Foundation at Medtronic cared for her mother in her final days, later becoming an advocate for training people how to support their colleagues and teams through bereavement. Join this timely discussion to make sure you’re prepared before a crisis hits.

NextUp PA: “New” & “Existing” Members U.S. Mint Tour & Networking Event in Philadelphia.

NextUp Membership is open to individuals or members of a partner organization. When you join NextUp through The McMorrow Reports/FMLink, you are entitled to 20 percent off with the code: NextUp23McMorrow.

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Global nonprofit ecolabel provider Green Seal just announced that representatives from leading retailers, industry associations, manufacturers and purchasers have joined its working group to provide their advice and expertise to the revision of Green Seal’s Standard for Sanitary Paper Products (GS-1) and align on meaningful sustainability leadership claims for this product category. The McMorrow Reports & FMLink Publisher Michael Walsh will be lending his industry expertise to the group as well.

Companies with Green Seal-certified sanitary paper products currently achieve measurable sustainability impacts — including preventing 12.5 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually — and trust Green Seal to validate they meet rigorous environmental leadership criteria while delivering uncompromising performance. Purchasers trust Green Seal-certified products because they achieve a significantly reduced carbon footprint, protect ancient and endangered forests, and use a chlorine-free bleaching process that protects water quality.

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ABM, a leading provider of facility services, infrastructure solutions, parking management and electric vehicle (“EV”) charging solutions, has completed the rollout of its proprietary ABM EV Charging Network, powered by its cloud-based ABM EV OS software in collaboration with Noodoe. Further elevating ABM’s comprehensive single-source EV infrastructure solutions, this network will unlock personalized customer experiences while improving EV charger uptime.

Amid a recent nationwide decline in driver satisfaction with public Level 2 charging, facility owners and operators across industries have been challenged to provide new solutions that recognize the importance of service, maintenance, and driver experience when installing and maintaining public EV chargers. A recent report by J.D. Power indicated roughly one in five public charging attempts fail, leading to driver frustration and dissatisfaction.

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The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has awarded the AIHA Guideline Foundation a second donation of $10,000 to continue developing the Emergency Response Planning Guidelines (ERPG) program. ERPGs are tools for assessing brief airborne exposures to hazardous chemicals associated with spills or releases. They may be used in accident prevention and emergency response planning and have been incorporated into the Department of Transportation’s Emergency Response Guidebook since 1989. The Foundation is the sole organization to establish and maintain ERPGs. It also publishes the Emergency Response Planning Guidelines Handbook, which aids first responders in managing the initial phase of hazardous material transportation accident response.

"We deeply appreciate ACC’s continued support of the AIHA Guideline Foundation’s Emergency Response Planning Guidelines program," remarked AIHA CEO Lawrence D. Sloan. "This contribution sustains the development of ERPGs and reinforces the essential partnership between our organizations to equip first responders and disaster relief professionals with the tools they need to ensure effective emergency preparedness and response."

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By Sara Marberry – This past week, I attended many sessions at the Healthcare Design Conference + Expo in New Orleans. The one that I keep thinking about is a roundtable discussion on design strategies to address caregiver burnout. The discussion leaders — two former nurses-turned-design-researchers/consultants Terri Zborowsky and Debbie Gregory, and healthcare interior designer Roz Cama — made it clear that they weren’t interested in rehashing what’s already been done, but rather explore new ideas that could really make a difference for caregivers. Tama Duffy Day and I conducted a similar discussion four years ago at the conference, exploring ways that design could support meaning and purpose in the healthcare workplace. And then Covid hit.

Major paradigm shift

A recent analysis of nurse employer reviews found that the top four factors that affect nurses overall job satisfaction are compensation, workload, toxic culture, and organizational support. Zborowski shared that one thing that’s happening to address the workload issue is virtual support of nursing. She called it a “major paradigm shift.” For design, this means strategic placement of cameras in every patient room to allow remote monitoring of patients and interactions with caregivers who aren’t physically present. This will also affect lighting, furniture and furniture placement, and room layout.

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See also: “Are you afraid artificial intelligence (AI) is going to replace your job as a creative?

As a building owner or facility manager, you have so much to think about and maintain — especially in this volatile economy. Tenant turnover, budget cuts, and market changes can impact your day-to-day operations and often create unnecessary anxiety for everyone involved. The good news? There’s never been a better time to outsource your facility’s cleaning crew, points out facilities services provider OpenWorks.

1. Dollar dollar bills y’all, it just makes sense
2. The nature of specialization: Learning to let the experts be the expert
3. Scheduling worries and team dynamics: Two bridges you won’t need to cross any longer

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Architecture, design and planning firm SGA is bolstering its sustainability portfolio with yet another record-breaking Life Sciences project: Innovation Square 3 (ISQ3).

Located in the Boston Seaport, ISQ3 is slated to become Boston’s first LEED Zero Carbon Certified building, helping advance the city’s initiatives to become carbon neutral by 2050. Teaming up with Boston’s leading minority-owned architecture firm Dream Collaborative, SGA designed a seven-story, 320,000 SF building with state-of-the-art, flexible lab space for Vertex Pharmaceuticals driven by enhanced interconnectivity with the public realm. Slated for completion in late 2025, ISQ3 features groundbreaking sustainability milestones while prioritizing diversity and community.

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There are 111 free industry sessions offered during the AHR Expo covering air conditioning, best practices, building automation and control, building design, certification, commissioning, energy conservation, efficiency, heating, HVAC/R systems and equipment, plumbing, refrigeration, ventilation, and more. In addition the show floor features 1,700+ exhibits from the top HVACR manufacturers. If you’re looking to explore and discover the very latest HVACR products and technology, you’ll find it all on display at the AHR Expo in Chicago, January 22-24, 2024.

The McMorrow Reports recommends these sessions for facility managers, especially for healthcare facilities and medical offices buildings (MOBs).

Cooling Tower Fundamentals will provide an overview of cooling tower technology and application. Topics include common cooling tower terms, how cooling towers work, the most common configurations in use today, and key design considerations for applying cooling towers on both HVAC and light industrial systems.

Compliance as a Catalyst: Regulatory-Driven Sustainability in Data Centers. Facility management, data center management, and engineers will find this applicable to any organization that has a data center of any size, including hospitals, universities, financial institutions, etc.

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iCleanse, a DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home) startup that develops Swift UV units for phone disinfection paired with advertising media, announces that they have deployed their larger and more advanced version of their Swift UV unit in response to client demands.

The improved and enlarged unit now includes 4G connectivity, which builds upon the earlier Swift UV model that relied on Wi-Fi to deliver advertising content. iCleanse executives also enlarged the Swift UV’s screen from 10 inches to 18 inches to better engage audiences and reach persons farther away. Additionally, new functionality allows for optional widgets to be customized by the client.

“By expanding our screen, we are effectively expanding spatial reach,” stated Chris Allen Sr., CEO of iCleanse. “Clients wished to deploy iCleanse Swift UV units within a larger space, but the 10-inch screens were deemed too small to catch a viewer’s eye within larger spaces. The larger unit and 4G connectivity ensure that a Swift UV unit can be deployed almost anywhere.”

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This week's Featured Book from FMLink's Books section is from the NFPA Codes category. This collection of peer-reviewed books has been curated by the editorial team at FMLink to provide facilities, engineering and A&D professionals with access to publications relating to the NFPA Codes topic.

Portable fire extinguishers are a critical first line of defense against small fires. For the best protection, be sure to select, use and maintain extinguishers using the latest requirements in the most up-to-date edition of NFPA 10, Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers. Whether you are a servicer, facility manager, facility owner, or technician, you can depend on this important standard for current, comprehensive rules for the distribution, placement, maintenance, operation, and inspection of portable fire extinguishers, as well as for their testing and recharging.

This and other NFPA Codes titles are now available for purchase on FMLink.