With healthcare facilities, a commercial painting job is much more than an attempt to boost the aesthetic appeal of the place. Painting a hospital, clinic, or any other healthcare facility is a meticulous task, requiring high standards of professionalism and expertise.
Healthcare centers provide a series of challenges, all requiring great skill and knowledge to handle. For instance, they are home to countless germs, house people with weak immunity such as the elderly, and need to create a comfortable and soothing environment for the patients.
Then there are the OSHA health-safety standards for healthcare interiors which an unskilled painting laborer can’t hope to satisfy.
In short: painting healthcare facilities is not simple.
If you’ve been handed this challenging task, be sure to get in touch with professional painters to maximize the output.
Healthcare Facilities & Fresh Paint Coatings
As mentioned earlier, when painting healthcare facilities, aesthetics are not the only thing to consider.
So why do hospitals and clinics require fresh paints?
Of course, the visual appeal is as important a factor as any, but that’s not all. Healthcare facilities are constantly bombarded by millions, perhaps even billions, of germs every day. Despite the best efforts of the healthcare staff, eliminating these pathogens from the facility is not a possibility.
You may double up the disinfecting efforts, but there will be one element evading your endeavors: the walls – you can’t mop them!
Fresh paint coatings ensure that bacterial presence is minimized, enhancing the safety factor for your medical center, further boosting the credibility of your practice.
Thus fresh paint coatings are synonymous with regular maintenance in the medical sector.
You may also need to change the color selection if the existing one is dull – which is the case with most healthcare facilities. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) binds healthcare providers to ensure a serene and soothing environment for all visitors and patients.
Patients are usually shaken by their ailments, and the sight of dull and uninspiring colors will only worsen their mental state. On the contrary, a smart color choice has reportedly shown effectiveness in alleviating stress and promoting optimism in patients.
Thus painting the walls of medical facilities is tied with the quality of service being offered to the patients.
Let’s explore the best practices and options for healthcare facilities painting!
Paint Selection For Healthcare Facilities
Any commercial painter will attest to this: not all paints are the same – and this is especially true for healthcare facilities painting. The brand, type, and color are all very important, but there are a couple of other properties that you must consider before finalizing your decision.
Paints have seen momentous transformations over the past years, and today, we have much safer wall painting options available in the market. Having the best interest of your patients in mind, you should consider the safety factor, above anything else before buying.
Here are two of the most important safety parameters to consider when buying paints for medical rooms:
Antimicrobial Potential
As a medical professional, you may already know that four, out of every 100 visitors (or 1/25) to a hospital will get infected with a disease from the hospital. Nosocomial infections or hospital-borne diseases are dead-serious as they claim the lives of countless people across the globe.
In the US alone, such infections cost the healthcare framework between 28 and 45 billion dollars per year. This monetary drain can be prevented, precious lives can be saved, and the hospital environment can be made safer if we buck up for a minor long-term investment: microbicidal paints.
Yes, that’s right – paints can and do kill microbes!
Even some of the toughest and highly antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Staphylococcus, E. coli, and Enterobacter won’t stand a chance against antimicrobial paints. It’s not only bacteria, these paints can help minimize the transmission risk of all sorts of pathogens, be they viruses, fungi, or protozoa.
By ensuring a minimal microbial presence in your healthcare facility, you will be in the good books of any visiting officer from regulatory bodies like OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration).
You will also drastically enhance the quality of healthcare services offered by your clinic or hospital by providing a safer enclosure for patients and visitors.
Win-win, right?
Minimal VOC Content
Another concern for any healthcare facility administration would be to maintain a safe indoor air quality.
One way of doing so is picking paints that have a low percentage, or better yet, none at all, of volatile organic compounds, often shortened as VOC. These highly unstable fractions are found in most cheap paints and are very dangerous.
They decay easily and release foul-smelling and hazardous gases in the air. Though the gases are not technically poisonous, they may induce allergic reactions in some and cause serious health problems for almost anyone breathing them in.
The risk is doubled up with children and the elderly.
However, alternatives are readily available in the market: we have low and zero VOC paints that can help preempt such problems. While the zero VOC types don’t have such toxic compounds in them, the low VOC are also adequately safe for use.
They may cost a bit higher, but they will reward you infinitely more.
Colors Matter A Lot In A Medical Setup
Many skeptics have argued against the effect of colors on a person’s mental state.
However, we cannot distance ourselves from the ground realities: colors do influence people.
Whether it be a result of cultural associations, some social stereotype, or a form of latent learning, colors influence the state of our minds.
They can fill people up with optimism and boost their brain’s positivity, or have the opposite effect. Even without saying a word, you can communicate with the visitors and patients who show up at your healthcare facility through a display of welcoming and encouraging colors on the walls.
Just imagine yourself in the shoes of a patient – you’re in pain, you’re not sure when or if it will go away, and you feel like life is draining out of you. Wouldn’t you appreciate it if the local hospital or clinic had a bright and lively interior that filled you with optimism?
The human mind can work miracles if motivated enough, it can also help people heal faster and better – this is not conjecture, but a scientific fact!
Be careful here because the opposite is also very true, just consider these important factors when settling for a color scheme for your healthcare facility painting project:
#1 What Purpose Does The Room Serve?
Most hospital waiting rooms have dull walls, you should think out of the box here and do something unique. Add vibrant and soothing colors that stimulate positivity, you can opt for bright yellow or blue, or something like eggshell white if you’re not into bold colors
The idea in all cases should be to avoid dull shades that feel uninspiring.
Color selection is more or less based on the purpose of the room, if it is a children’s wing then you can’t go wrong with vibrant shades. You may even take a step further and add engaging posters, especially those with cartoons on them, on the walls to make children feel welcomed.
Similarly, the doctor’s office should have calming shades in it, with interactive artwork, to create a sense of calmness and reassurance.
The point is to make the interior both safe and appealing.
#2 How Will The Shade Go With The Ensemble?
Unable to choose which color will be perfect because they’re all too good?
Or, have no idea about shade selection for healthcare painting to begin with?
You can always try out some deductive reasoning: just look for some sort of pattern in the room’s ensemble and decide the shade accordingly.
Don’t look for a perfect match, instead, see which shade will go nicely with the room’s setup.
Of course, if you feel clueless, you can always ask for expert advice – most commercial painters will gladly help you with the color selection.
#3 Colors Can Help You Brand Your Healthcare Facility
Brand awareness is one of the core components for making any business, even medical practice, flourish. Hospitals and clinics, like all other establishments, must build an identity to get more visitors.
Colors can help here as well.
If you already have a business logo, well and good, if not, get one as soon as possible. Try to infuse colors from the logo into your building, not everywhere, but enough to make an impact.
Your logo may already have stimulating shades in it, and if such is the case, your efforts will be cut by half, and the output doubled.
re:fab Has Your Back With All Healthcare Facility Painting Projects
Healthcare facilities panting jobs are not only about aesthetics, and only true professionals can help you maximize your endeavors. re:fab is powered by over three decades of excellence in the painting business, and we have managed to exceed the expectations of our clients with every job.
When we take responsibility for a task, we see to its completion most quickly and deliver the best possible results.
Check out our website, get a free quote, and leave the rest to us!
