St. John Macomb Hospital
St. John Macomb Hospital’s facilities manager, Mike Gerstenlauer says there were no immediate renovation plans in the works when he decided to do a trial with Compass, Herman Miller’s new modular healthcare system. But knowing how quickly the healthcare world is changing today, he wanted to try out a footwall system to see if it might provide solutions for them in the future.
The flexible system was brought to Gerstenlauer’s attention by Work Squared Healthcare Representative Laura Agabashian. “I sent him a magazine article that featured the Compass system, and he was very intrigued by it. We met right after that about setting up a trial patient room, which would let him test out the system without making a huge investment,” she recalls.
Gerstenlauer knew that Compass was made up of individual components that can easily be moved around as needs change. But he wanted to see for himself what it might offer the hospital in terms of flexibility. Would it really accommodate change?
“Like most people in my position, I would have said that we never change room layouts once they’re set up,” he explains. “It just doesn’t work, so we don’t allow it.”
Turns out, the Compass trial room was a huge eye-opener for him—and for others in the hospital, too. Indeed, changes began happening almost immediately.
“What I learned is that when you have the ability to change the room around easily, you change it constantly,” says Gerstenlauer.
In other words, when you eliminate all the trouble it takes—tearing the room apart, knocking holes in walls, rewiring, repainting, reconfiguring and losing valuable downtime—it changes everything. And you make changes because you can.
Compass components are designed for flexibility. They’re easy to assemble, remove, rearrange, and refresh. Storage can be quickly relocated, and utilities can be readily accessed, added, or modified.
“I can send one of my guys in there with a set of tools and he can change the entire layout of a room in 15 minutes,” says Gerstenlauer. “We’ve changed this patient room more than any other room in our building, from semi-private to private then back to semi-private it again. It’s literally a matter of click-click, you’ve moved the TV; click-click, now you have two TVs. Everything just slides right into place. And if components are damaged later, they can easily be replaced.”
And Gerstenlauer isn’t the only one singing its praises. “The nurses really love the fact that we can make that room whatever it needs to be today,” says Gerstenlauer, adding that the director of nursing liked it so much she wanted to put it into every room in the hospital.
Making those kinds of sweeping changes, however, takes time. Now that they’ve seen Compass in action, would they recommend it for any health care facility that might be considering updating or renovating? “Absolutely.” says Gerstenlauer.
The hospital’s housekeeping and maintenance crews also appreciate Compass because it’s so easy to clean. In fact, it was intentionally designed to meet the rigorous cleaning requirements of healthcare environments. Tiles and components are wrapped in Durawrap, a 99.9% PVC-free material that has a seamless, cleanable, and durable surface. A shingled seam between tiles and components prevents spills from seeping into gaps; enhancing cleaning and minimizing the spread of infection.
Hospital staff also likes the way Compass looks. “That was another big issue for us,” says Gerstenlauer. “We want nice-looking furniture and Compass has a very clean, contemporary aesthetic.”
“With healthcare today, something is always changing,” summarizes Gerstenlauer. “Going into this trial, I never would have believed that accommodating changes could be so easy. But I am sold on this system, and so is the rest of the staff. It made us realize that the only thing stopping change is us.”
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