CANTON, N.C. — Situated in between the mountains on a river bank in North Carolina, Canton-based Silver Bluff Village stands as a family-owned and -operated senior living community offering short-term rehab, long-term care, independent living and social activities for residents.

Lisa Leatherwood, MSN, RN and administrator of Silver Bluff Village, pursued a renovation to the corridors and nurses’ station in the main skilled nursing building of the long-term care facility serving more than 120 patients. The challenges included replacing the flooring without creating a louder environment and specifying a surface that could be easily cleaned and maintained. While the main building was originally built in 1984, it originally featured luxury vinyl tiles (LVT), which created noise from patients, staff and families passing through the halls.

According to Leatherwood, acoustics is a prominent issue in senior living facilities. Patients being pushed on wheelchairs, linen carts, food carts and refuse barrels all create noise pollution throughout the building.

Trying to find solutions, the first renovation replaced the flooring with carpet, which reduced noise, but proved problematic for cleanliness. As a result, Leatherwood began searching for an alternative to carpet. She learned about Ecore flooring’s Rx line after attending a skilled nursing convention.

“We researched a less costly LVT brand engineered for sound control from a different manufacturer,” Leatherwood said in a statement. “However, when we followed up with that company, they couldn’t provide us with any resources or a customer referral to discuss noise levels. At that point, I just wasn’t convinced that LVT would be as effective as Ecore’s Rx line in sound absorption.”

Leatherwood then made the decision to install Ecore’s Forest Rx surface in European Oak in the hallways of all four resident wings, a business office area and in a short wing that leads to the assisted living building attached to the long-term care building. This type of flooring creates a surface that has the capability of reducing the risk of injury associated with falls while also offering sound control and comfort for walking.

The flooring was installed one wing at a time, starting with the facility’s most alert residents so they could immediately determine whether noise would be an issue. Once the project was completed, Silver Bluff residents and staff took notice of the positive results of the flooring installation, with no difference in noise between the carpet and Ecore flooring. According to Leatherwood, staff also observed that it was easier to roll their carts and move residents around, as well as clean the surface, stating the floor could be cleaned with a simple damp mop.

“We are extremely satisfied with the Ecore floors,” added Leatherwood. “They are beautiful, they really are as quiet as carpet, and everyone is enjoying them so much. We could not be happier.”

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CANTON, Ga. — The Northside Hospital Cherokee in Canton has been making plans to upgrade and build a new hospital for close to 10 years. Construction began in Jan. 2014, with the new updated hospital slated to open on May 6, replacing the old 1960 facility that is still currently in use in North Canton. The new full-service community hospital will have more than 600 physicians and 1,700 employees.

The budget for the new 700,000-square-foot Cherokee hospital is $280 million, with 300 more employees than the old hospital, according to a statement. The architect on the project is Howell Rusk Dodson Architects (HRD) in Atlanta, and the general contractor is Batson Cook (also in Atlanta). Construction is already complete on the new hospital, according to Dale Lee, lead design architect at HRD, and will open with more than twice the square footage as the old hospital. Northside Hospital staff is focused on training and education between now and when hospital doors open, while overseeing the installations of equipment and furniture. The goal of the new hospital is to replace the existing facility with state-of-the-art modernized features, expansion capabilities for future growth and to upgrade the level of service for the people of Canton, according to Lee.

The new hospital is built on 50 acres of land, and will have 150 patient rooms, including a 24-bed ICU unit, 45 emergency department exam rooms, inpatient and outpatient radiology and cardiology, and six operating rooms, according to Lee. It will also have a cancer center and infusion center, an outpatient surgery center, and a 900-space parking deck. The new hospital will also have a women’s center — which the previous hospital did not — that will have 13 labor and delivery rooms, two C-Section rooms, and a Zen garden built outside, according to Lee.

Design aspects of the hospital were inspired by the Cherokee community, following Cherokee’s motto, “Where metro meets the mountains,” according to Lee. “We wanted to create some nice public spaces. We wanted to make sure we combined high end materials that you would want in a hospital, but also to use materials that are native to the area that offer warmth and a feeling of comfort,” said Lee. To achieve this, HRD used a combination of high-tech materials and design including metals, panels, and using clean lines in combination with stone walls, wood walls and very ‘earth-like materials,’” according to Lee. Much of the art in the hospital also comes from local artists and photographers.

The building is also designed and oriented to give patients beautiful views, according to Lee. “Creating a connection between the inside and the outdoors was a really important part of the design. There is so much natural light coming into the building, you don’t even need lights on most of the time,” said Lee. That said, 50 percent of the building’s light fixtures will be energy-efficient LED lighting, according to a statement.

To create a community feel, there is a large dining space called The Galleria with a large outdoor terrace space intended to be used by the public for community events, or simply to go out to lunch, according to Lee. “The new hospital will become a destination for the community to visit for pleasure in addition to going to the hospital when someone is sick. That’s something you don’t see every day,” said Lee. “This is what I personally enjoy about designing hospitals — helping people and giving the community something they can be proud of,” Lee said.

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