A visit to a hospital emergency department can be a frightening experience for a child. Sensitive to this, administrators at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn., sought to create a warm, colorful, child-friendly environment for their youngest patients as they expanded the hospital’s pediatric emergency department.

According to Brad Bevers, director of facilities design and construction at the busy urban hospital, the floor covering they selected for the renovation project played an important role in achieving their goal. “We need to ensure that the space is welcoming and child friendly,” he noted. “This is especially true because we’re treating young children who aren’t feeling well and are in an unfamiliar setting.” Noraplan Environcare was selected to run throughout the renovated portion of the emergency department.

Yale-New Haven Hospital is a not-for-profit, 944-bed healthcare facility that is affiliated with the Yale University School of Medicine and includes the 202-bed Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital and 72-bed Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital. The hospital operates both adult and pediatric emergency departments that together see nearly 100,000 patients per year.

“We expanded our pediatric emergency department to support the increasing volume of patients who use this facility,” Bevers explained. “The project included five new exam spaces, a new staff work area and additional renovations to the existing department.” Salvatore Associates, Needham, Mass., served as architect for the project, and CAMA, New Haven, developed the interior design.

According to CAMA designer Elizabeth O’Brien, the search for a floor covering that offered key performance features as well as a bright, cheerful color palette led the hospital to Noraplan Environcare. “They were attracted to the floor’s no-wax finish and its promise of easy maintenance, as well as the floor’s resistance to betadine and other substances present in a hospital setting,”