Ochsner Health is the leading nonprofit healthcare provider across the Gulf South, with 47 hospitals and more than 370 health centers and urgent care clinics. To meet the needs of both patients and staff, the company relies on interior materials that combine durability and low maintenance with occupant health and safety.
Busy, Challenging Environments with No Room for Error
Across its facilities, Ochsner Health sees millions of patient and guest interactions each year, with needs ranging from wellness checkups to virus care to traumas and surgeries. As such, the company’s design team requires interior flooring and wallcovering materials to meet a lengthy checklist of needs. Most importantly, products must be durable, able to withstand impact, high traffic, heavy equipment, and frequent cleaning with harsh chemicals. Slip resistance is also critical, and price points must help designers meet often tight construction budgets.
And today, none of that should come at the sacrifice of aesthetics. “Healthcare has evolved over the years; we’re trying to make the environment less sterile and more welcoming,” says Jaime Johnston, AVP of Facilities Planning for Ochsner Health. “We tend to take a nod from hospitality. We want our welcome areas to be as nice as possible, so you feel like it’s light, bright, and airy and you feel good about being in that space.”
Vinyl Products Meet a Wide Range of Needs
As part of the Ochsner’s interior standards package, Johnston and her staff use vinyl flooring in nearly every hospital area that doesn’t have carpet.
“Durability and cleanability are the top two reasons we specify vinyl flooring for most of our facilities,” Johnston says. “Price and slip resistance also are a big deal, and vinyl fulfills all of these needs.”
This includes Mannington performance vinyl tile (PVT) and luxury vinyl tile (LVT) in waiting rooms, some offices, corridors, and clinic exam rooms, as well as sheet vinyl in areas that require a monolithic surface, such as hospital exam and patient rooms, isolation rooms, imaging rooms, and operating rooms.
Most recently, Ochsner Health installed Mannington’s Biospec MD sheet vinyl in the outpatient ORs, recovery room, and patient rooms at its new Clearview Medical Complex clinic, one of the company’s largest in the New Orleans area. Biospec MD is made with Mannington’s Quantum Guard Technology, which is engineered for ease of cleaning and reduced maintenance costs, offers high abrasion resistance, and delivers advanced stain resistance and excellent slip resistance. It also comes in nearly 70 color options as vinyl flooring companies continue to elevate visuals with more choices to meet brand standards, feel fresh and on trend, and enhance the visitor experience.
“It starts with a great substrate — in this case Mannington vinyl — and continues with our great environmental services staff,” Johnston says. “It’s an ideal collaboration of a product performing as it needs to, and then our EVS team caring for it the way it’s supposed to be, and it shows.”
Ensuring a Sustainable Future
Along with offering flooring that meets the demanding challenges of healthcare environments, Mannington Mills is a member +Vantage Vinyl, the industry’s sustainability verification program developed by the Vinyl Sustainability Council to help architects, designers, engineers, and specifiers identify vinyl manufacturers and suppliers committed to responsible environmental, social, and governance practices. Specifying +Vantage Vinyl-verified companies supports material transparency, responsible sourcing, and alignment with established green building frameworks such as LEED, WELL, and Green Globes.
To learn more about specifying +Vantage Vinyl products, download the Specification Guide for model language and guidance for integrating verified companies into project requirements. For guidance on specifying vinyl for healthcare projects, take the Vinyl Institute’s course on AEC Daily, “Vinyl: The High-Performing Choice for Healthcare.”
