THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE
“Excellent environmental hygiene and
handwashing procedures are the best prac- tice for reducing infection risk in residents, so focus on designing residences with easy- to-disinfect surfaces. “For example, furniture with hard or non-
permeable surfaces allows for frequent and thorough disinfection. Installing luxury vinyl tile fl ooring in place of carpets creates fl oors that are easier to clean, while still maintain- ing that comforting home-like feeling.”
Miles of tile Making it easy to clean yet home-like is
the approach STG Design is using in its senior living designs. “People gravitate toward a cleaner,
From STG Design: Materials that stand up to disinfectants include tile fl oors that have the warm look of wood, continuous countertops, and wipeable vinyl chairs.
It’s the best of both worlds, with each part
of the community functioning as an island or as the mainland, depending on need. Some communities already do this on a smaller scale, with neighbors holding parties for their fl oor or block, and diff erent types of architecture refl ecting diff erent lifestyles within.
Antimicrobial materials? One of the actions characterizing senior living now (and also in every fl u season) is the near-constant cleaning and disinfectant wipe-downs—rails, elevator buttons, door- knobs, and virtually every other surface. What if the materials that these high-touch areas are made of could have built-in disin- fectant properties? “Development work on materials with inherent antimicrobial properties has been
gamifi cation
If you collect kudos cards from residents and reward caregivers who earn the most, you’ve “gamifi ed” excellence. Through keeping scores, adding up actions, charting progress, a team can work together to get results, staff can have healthy competition, or individuals can compete with personal bests.
10 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE MAY/JUNE 2020
around for many years,” writes Amanda Bakken, lead chemist at Ecolab, in an email interview. “These materials often have long-acting
performance claims that may even encom- pass the full life-span of the material itself. “However,
these materials are often
very limited in their actual antimicrobial performance and are often not eff ective on public health organisms, including the very pathogens that make people sick.” The bad news is there’s not likely, even
in the next decade, to be self-disinfecting materials. But materials do matter in a healthier environment. “The most cost-eff ective approach is not
focused on a particular technology, but rather on what that material allows you to do,” Bakken says.
brighter, more open environment,” says Larry Meeks, principal and architect at STG Design. “There's defi nitely a lot of balance that needs to happen between acoustics, sanita- tion, and clean design—and also maintain- ing the health of all of those residents,” Meeks says. STG has been working with new surfaces
and technologies to achieve this, including lighting systems that reinforce circadian rhythms. “There are a lot of things we can do with
the material selections,” Ann Yearwood, as- sociate and interior designer at STG Design says. “First of all, we have to engage the client and understand their cleaning protocol, and make sure the protocols are compatible with current standards—and also making sure that we're providing a fl exibility for those cleaning protocols to change, as they are right now.” One such material is extra-large-format
tile, such as three-by-ten-feet tiles—which also happen to be an emerging design trend. “You essentially have no grout line, says Yearwood. Together with materials that clean easily, this means almost zero places germs can hide.
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