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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Avery Dennison

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Cubicle Curtain Factory offers a one-size-fits-all curtain, with a 66-square-inch panels that can be replaced as necessary. The sectioned-curtain complies with health codes, which state a soiled linen must be completely removed, according to the company.

The curtain’s panels overlap to ensure patient privacy and attach to the mesh top, which allows water from sprinklers to pass through in case of a fire. The curtains come in a variety of patterns and are connected with snaps.

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EPS Inc. introduces tablet crushers to its line of patient care products. They are designed to crush medication for patients who won’t or can’t swallow tablets. They are manufactured from shatter-proof, lightweight plastic and are available in four colors.

The product is also available as a heavy-duty metal crusher, made from die-cast stainless steel. Each unit comes with durable stainless steel fittings. They use .75-ounce or 1-ounce crush cups to eliminate cross-contamination.

Reader Service # 203

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The Crest E-Z Glide IV pole is available in four stylish colors: blue, green, red and silver. The color options allow for easy color-coding in facilities. Stability and patient mobility are provided with a five-leg base whose sure-grip surface allows for easy navigation.

The pole features five twin 2-inch casters for smooth gliding. The pole is adjustable from 54 inches to 94 inches total height and is made of lightweight anodized aluminum. It can accommodate a wide range of accessories – pumps and monitors, catheter bags, tourniquet systems – with a four-hook configuration. It also features a limited one-year warranty.

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Mintie Technologies’ new IcoRoom Portable Anteroom System is designed to help hospitals protect their patients and staff members against the spread of airborne TB bacteria from infected patients, as well as other airborne infectious diseases. The system consists of a lightweight, collapsible anteroom and a high-volume, high-efficiency HEPA filtration negative air machine.

The anteroom is designed to replicate permanent negative-pressure anterooms, which the CDC has identified as effective in containing airborne infectious droplet nuclei, such as TB. The anteroom is made with a flame-rated polyfabric envelope and a high- strength, collapsible frame. Take-down is fast and easy, with a push-button frame collapse.

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Planar Systems Inc., a provider of flat panel display systems, has announced the Dome EX line, which includes a 4-megapixel color diagnostic display medically certified for the health care field. Designed for use in many areas of a health care facility, the display features a widescreen, 16:9 format that simplifies comparison studies by eliminating the image split associated with dual-head monitors, providing more screen space for multiple images.

The product, along with other color displays in the company’s line, helps enhance visualization of various color modalities, and offers 2D color imaging, image fusion and 3D imaging. It can display more than 90 percent of a computed radiography image without the need to scale it down and also can show 15 full-size 512 x 512 color and grayscale images at the same time.

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Bondtech Corp. specializes in the sale and manufacturing of autoclaves and autoclave systems. The company supplies systems to the medical waste treatment industry and offers complete turnkey installation and maintenance service. The company’s systems are high-vacuum, high-pressure systems.

Autoclaves are subject to a pre-vacuum cycle, pulsating saturated-steam cycle, and a post-vacuum cycle to facilitate more uniform penetration of steam into the medical waste to be treated. The high vacuum is achieved by using a liquid seal vacuum pump or a steam ejector. The company also offers a training program to improve performance and/or train personnel to operate equipment properly and efficiently.

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