During the annual Healthcare Design Expo & Conference each November, the winners of Healthcare Design’s various awards programs from the preceding months are fêted. However, there’s one last competition that takes place right on-site in the expo hall, with the judging of products entered in The Nightingale Awards. This program is presented by Healthcare Design and Contract magazines in partnership with The Center for Health Design and recognizes contributions to the healthcare built environment through product design and innovation.

This year, there were 21 winners across 12 product categories, with 50 total products entered. The jurors (listed below) are healthcare architects, interior designers, and facilities managers. To evaluate the entries, they visited the exhibitors’ booths before the HCD Expo floor opened to experience the products and ask the manufacturers and designers questions about their offerings. They assessed attributes that include contributions to the quality of care delivered as well as clinical/operational outcomes, features that answer needs related to communication and healthcare-associated infection prevention, and details that deliver functionality and style.

On the following pages of this special Nightingale Awards section, you’ll find more information on the Best of Competition-winning Ascend Patient Recliner with Vertical Lift from Krug (which took home a gold in the Furniture: Clinician Support category as well as an Innovation Award). Healthcare Design talked to the designer behind the product about the market demands it answers and how it creates a whole new product type—see the Q+A on page 16.

Additionally, check out details on the Gold, Silver, and Innovation Award winners. Congratulations to the designers and manufacturers behind yet another impressive group of new product launches, tailored specifically for the needs of the modern healthcare facility and patient.

Thank you to our 2018 Nightingale Awards jury

Audrey Barriault
Associate, CallisonRTKL Inc.

Meghan Buffat
Clinician, Assistant Practitioner, Nurse, Care Provider, CHI Memorial Health System

Karen Glaser
Senior Interior Designer, Associate, Hawley Peterson Snyder

Tamra Green
Senior Associate, CallisonRTKL Inc.

Denise Hannaghan
Senior Healthcare Consultant, HDR

Janet Kobylka
Senior Interior Designer,
Workplace Solutions Inc.

Cathy Massey
Manager, Planning and Projects (Clinical Facilities Planning),
Facilities Management,
Fraser Health Authority

Karen Muraoka
Principal/Senior Designer, Karen Muraoka Interior Design LLC

Chris Orlando
Senior Vice President, Transition Services,
VOC Associates LLC

Fernanda Pires
Associate, Array Architects

Elizabeth Wiech
Space Planner, Summit Health Management

Heather Williams
Facilities Planning Tech,
Confluence Health