Daylighting promotes healing and wellness at the Florida Hospital for Women at Orlando Campus

The new award-winning Florida Hospital for Women, Orlando Campus will eventually have 336 licensed beds in the patient bed tower and represents the pinnacle of women’s healthcare while overlooking calming and lushly landscaped gardens and grounds while serving women’s health needs through all stages of their lives.

The new bed tower is flowing, elegant, and playful, seemingly rising from an adjacent pool of water at the center of the health village campus—in welcome contrast to angular and conventional construction of the main hospital tower. For those seeking healing and respite, it will be distinguished as a beacon of hope, light, and wellness.

Goals

Growing research demonstrates that patients recover faster and better from illness or surgery in settings that offer abundant daylight and views to the outdoors. Architectural design that provides these features is proven to correlate with reduced medication intake and shorter recovery periods, thereby improving patient outcomes and quickening room turnaround times.

The design team, including HKS Architects and interior design firm Stantec, took this knowledge into consideration when selecting window treatments for the patient rooms and common areas.

Solutions

MechoSystems provided motorized DoubleShades® for patient rooms, along with ThermoVeil® shadecloth for advanced solar heat control and Classic Blackout shadecloth for improved rest, privacy, and room-darkening at any time of day. The system can be easily operated by patients with a pillow switch, similar to adjusting the overhead light or TV volume, or calling for assistance.  Wall controls in the family zone allow visitors and staff the ability to adjust the motorized shades.  MechoSystems also has the capability for providing control of motorized shades via an automated shading control system that allows for staff override at the nurse’s stations or connection to building automation systems.  Automation ensures effective daylighting integration, management of glare, and control of solar radiation via predictive modeling and real-time sky monitoring.

Common areas of the Florida Hospital for Women at Orlando Campus use manual solar shades to provide ample natural light while minimizing heat gain, thereby ensuring visitor comfort while reducing energy costs in the waiting areas/lounges.

Results

For this project, Window Interiors, a MechoSystems dealer and associate, won Florida’s regional Associated Builders and Contractors Eagle Award in 2016, also a testament to the work of the architects, designers, installers, and MechoSystems in the successful window treatments used at the Florida Hospital for Women at Orlando Campus.

MechoSystems’ 10-year non-depreciating warranty—along with the antimicrobial shadecloth’s 20-year lifespan—will ensure the Florida Hospital for Women in Orlando will serve patients, promote healing solutions, and gain energy savings far into the future.

For more information, visit MechoShade.com/healthcare or email marketingLIC.