At Stance Healthcare, we are committed to continually learning about the healthcare industry we serve – from its customers, to the trends and best practices shaping how care is delivered. Thanks to our new showroom in Charlotte, NC, we are able to engage and build connections within the Charlotte-area community, which is home to several major healthcare systems that serve multiple regions throughout the U.S.
The North Carolina chapter of Women in Healthcare is one of these connections, and they recently invited Suzanne Fawley, our Behavioral Health Interior Designer, to present her CEU, Behavioral Health Design 101: Learning from the Past to Design for the Future, at one of their meetings.
We were pleased to be in attendance with this gathering of women, who represented many facets of healthcare facility planning, from project management to architecture and design. Throughout the evening, we enjoyed hearing their various perspectives in the context of not only Behavioral Health facility planning, but the challenges of supporting different kinds of today’s evolving healthcare facilities – including working under budget constraints, how to prioritize the privacy and dignity of patients presenting different needs in one space, and tips for preventing injury and wear and tear in products.
Suzanne’s presentation provided the springboard for conversation throughout the evening. Her top-ranked IDCEC-accredited presentation provided a thorough overview of both the history of psychiatric facilities and modern-day Behavioral Health care delivery, with lessons learned from the past informing today’s best practices for treatment environments. As she notes in her presentation, prioritizing the dignity of patients can be achieved in many ways – from the welcoming design of an “open” intake area, to the comfort-forward furniture that offers a more residential feel – like Stance’s “beautiful but tough” Verity Lounge Collection.
Many of the women in attendance noted that such Behavioral Health design principles can and should also translate to other types of facilities, including emergency departments, which receive growing numbers of patients experiencing mental health crises and require a safe environment to support their intake. Attendee Elissa Sturdivant, a project manager with Atrium Health, referenced a coastal North Carolina military hospital constructed in the late ‘90s, which achieved this balance of safety with dignity for its veteran patients.
Sturdivant said of Womack Army Medical Hospital in Ft. Bragg, N.C.: “I feel like they were definitely ahead of Behavioral Health design with the construction of this facility in 1998-99 because it is an inviting “one-stop shop” for soldiers and their families without feeling as though they are confined to a clinical setting.”
Whether in a therapeutic setting designed for Behavioral Health rehabilitation, in an E.R., or at a military hospital, Stance is encouraged to hear the principles of safe, comfortable, durable Behavioral Health design are increasingly being applied and appreciated throughout the healthcare facility planning universe. We applaud these accomplished and knowledgeable women for taking the time to exchange their insights with each other and with us, and we look forward to continuing to learn and grow alongside them and our many other professional peers leading the way in this space.
Women in Healthcare’s mission is to promote the professional development of women in the healthcare industry through networking, education, and mentorship. For more information about Women in Healthcare, including how to find a chapter in your area of the U.S., visit https://www.womeninhealthcare.org/. |
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Customer Service That Sets Us ApartTuesday, June 28, 2022
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Stance Healthcare Has The People In Place To Provide Unmatched Customer Service
Stance Healthcare’s Customer Service team has been able to experience so much success thanks to their years of experience and expertise in the industry. The Customer Service team is all women, with tenure ranging from 6 months to 8 years at Stance Healthcare. The team has been built and grown with purpose, and Stance Healthcare has brought in new talent and retained its valuable employees to ensure it continues providing the best customer service possible.
Overall, the team offers more than 75 years of cumulative experience at your service. That kind of experience and industry knowledge uniquely prepares our team to tackle whatever challenges arise. It’s easy to see why Stance Healthcare continues to set the gold standard in customer service in the Contract Furniture Industry and beyond. To contact our Customer Service Team, visit StanceHealthcare.com/contact. |
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The Faster Way To Furnish HealthcareThursday, June 16, 2022
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Our Quick Ship Program Allows For Fast, Efficient Delivery In the current economic climate, many manufacturers are not providing expedited shipping services. And, if they do, they most likely have extended lead times. But Stance Healthcare and Stance Behavioral Health have the people and products in place to fulfill orders effectively without long lead times.
The Accent and Bold product lines offer stackable metal seating at its best. Versatile and affordable, they’ll fit seamlessly in a wide variety of healthcare settings. Our Marathon line of seating is comfortable and inviting, making it perfect for waiting room areas. We also offer storage and surface solutions for the bedside with our Royale bedside table. The intentionally designed table gives patients quick access to items and a dependable place to put their belongings.
Our Quick Ship Program also includes a number of Stance Behavioral Health products, including the Frontier collection and the Flo dining chair. The items in the Frontier Collection available for quick shipping are the bed, bedside cabinet, desk, two-and-_three shelf wall mount units, and the armless chair. This gives us the ability to furnish an entire patient room in around 5 days if the project calls for it. The dusty blue colorway was picked for the Quick Ship Program due to its calm, soothing and practical nature. It’s a collection that suits nearly any healthcare furniture need, from storage to rest and relaxation.
The other Behavioral Health product available for fast shipping is the multifaceted Flo dining chair. The sleek, intentionally designed chair offers a safe, comfortable and inviting seating option for multi-use common areas like dining and therapy rooms.
While the safe, reliable functionality of our products is always important, we understand that having a soothing, welcoming aesthetic can be just as crucial, especially in Behavioral Health settings. That’s why a number of our Quick Ship products are available in a range of fabric options from designer CF Stinson. We want to ensure our customers can create a calm, comforting look and feel with our products. A look and feel that fits in their space and performs its function.
Despite the factors working against us, we will continue to do our very best to offer affordable, innovative products and unrivaled customer service now and into the future. Learn more about our Quick Ship Program and the products available here.
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Stance Healthcare Releases Spry Seating CollectionTuesday, June 14, 2022
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Designed with infection control in mind, the sleek and comfortable Spry is a versatile seating collection with connected linking tables to create space between patients.
Designed with emphasis on flexibility, cleanability, and durability, Spry offers three different sizes of linking tables (6”, 12” or 18”), and can be configured into seemingly endless table and chair combinations. Spry is also unique for its dual emphasis on function and form: The collection’s sleek, yet comfort-forward aesthetic balances out this well-rounded new offering from Stance Healthcare.
“Spry can go anywhere, offering seemingly endless applications for healthcare environments,” said Carl Kennedy, Stance Healthcare’s president. “It is also innately easy to keep clean, with its 360 clean-out and solid surface arm caps, making it ideal for today’s post-COVID cleaning requirements. We are so pleased to finally bring this versatile product to market and look forward to seeing how Spry contributes to many different healthcare spaces.”
In addition to its versatility and beautiful form, Spry’s solid surface arm caps – thin and simply designed for maximum cleanability – make the product a stand-out in the healthcare seating marketplace. Ideal for the social-distancing era and beyond, the ultra-cleanable Spry is also available armless for environments looking to minimize touch points. Spry’s frame design facilitates thorough and efficient cleaning, and using materials like steel and solid surface ensure surfaces will hold up to today’s accelerated cleaning protocols.
Spry’s frames are fully welded for strength and to eliminate joint seams, and its carefully planned fastener placement keeps reachable touch points smooth, further providing easy to clean surfaces.
Spry is available for purchase now. To inquire about purchasing Spry for your healthcare space, speak with a rep in your area.
Follow Stance Healthcare’s blog, LinkedIn, and Instagram to stay up-to-date on product releases, as well as engaging content centered on Stance’s Improving Lives by Design mission that educates and inspires. About Stance Healthcare Founded in 2006, Stance Healthcare manufactures furniture for healing environments, with a particular focus on hospitals and behavioral health facilities. Stance Healthcare has a reputation for providing high-quality products that meet the ever-evolving demands in the areas of design, comfort, safety, durability, renewability, infection control and environmental sustainability. With a strong understanding of patient-centered design, Stance Healthcare is committed to providing innovative furniture solutions that support the healing process. Please visit stancehealthcare.com for the latest news and in-depth information on Stance Healthcare and visit https://stancebh.com/ to learn more about our Behavioral Health offerings and insights. |
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Spotlight on the Durable, Versatile, Original: Corian Solid SurfaceTuesday, June 7, 2022
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In a healthcare environment, surface areas like table tops and arm caps are a critical design aspect of a given space – they can affect everything from an area’s safety and cleanability, to its aesthetics and comfort. Increasingly in the post-COVID era, surface finish selections are a top consideration for designers and facility planners when specifying products for healthcare.
At Stance, we are proud to offer Corian® Solid Surface finish options across many of our product categories. This material is the original solid surface offering in the marketplace and remains the go-to solid surface selection for healthcare furniture, and for good reasons: Corian® Solid Surface is a virtually maintenance-free finish selection that is highly customizable, easy-to-clean and withstands the test of time.
Developed in the 1970s, Corian® Solid Surface is composed of resins, epoxies, natural limestone and pigments, which combine to form a non-porous surface that doesn’t require sealing or polishing. The material was originally designed to be an attractive alternative to the limited countertop options available decades ago – and since then, it has evolved to continually offer a variety of colors and patterns that make healthcare application seamless. For example, Stance offers two Solid Surface offerings, Beech Nuwood and Mahogany Nuwood, which resemble wood – and help support a more biophilic, residential-feeling space that encourages healing with this softer aesthetic.
“Corian® Solid Surface is the gold standard for healthcare designers,” said Suzanne Fawley, Stance Healthcare’s Behavioral Health Interior Designer. “Its characteristics check every box for healthcare application: durable and able to withstand wear, highly cleanable, and extremely customizable – it’s a great investment for any healthcare environment.”
Corian® Solid Surface is:
Corian® Solid Surface is offered as an option on several of Stance’s product lines, including the tops on the Olsen Overbed Table, and arm cap options for: Jensen Lounge Seating, nearly all of our occasional tables for general healthcare, three of our metal seating collections (Legend, Vista II, Oasis), and several of our lounge seating products (Cassia, Carson, Huxley, Verity, Oasis Glider).
Coming Soon: Stay tuned for the Spry Seating Collection, an exciting new release arriving next week which features Solid Surface on the arm caps and also includes connecting tables made with the material. |
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Stance Healthcare Evolves Valet Lounge Chair Collection with New Wood and Swivel Star BasesThursday, May 26, 2022
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Popular series is ideal for general healthcare and Behavioral Health settings
The new wood base adds a sense of warmth in addition to reliable durability and a classically modern look from the ground up. This base is offered in an array of finishes to fit any fabric option – including Stance’s newest finish colors, Aria, White Chocolate, Dolce Vita, and Palomino.
The swivel star base allows for more range of movement without sacrificing strength and stability. Offered in a polished aluminum finish, this versatile new base design can be customized with a variety of fabrics that leave plenty of room for custom design possibilities — from the simple and understated to the curated fabric collection developed in collaboration with CF Stinson.
Boasting an eye-catching, mid-century modern flair, Valet is just as pleasant to use as it is to view, with exceptional “sink-in” comfort and arms designed for stable, easy egress. Its chair is available in either low-back, for places of impact, such as healthcare lobbies; or high-back, which creates an acoustical buffer for therapeutic areas where quiet conversation and consultation may be needed.
The Valet series is offered in two separate categories, with one product group ideal for general healthcare environments and a second designed specifically for Behavioral Health. The general healthcare collection offers eight lounge chairs, with options including high-back and swivel bases, as well as a wider option to accommodate two users. Valet for Behavioral Health includes two lounge chairs offered in a BH-grade, highly durable base.
“I love the Valet chair in particular for the way it truly encourages comfort, while creating more private space for the user,” said Suzanne Fawley, Stance Healthcare’s Behavioral Health Interior Designer. “This collection adds durability with style to spaces that are in most cases predictably designed – and the two new bases will take this already-great collection even further.”
The new release supports Stance’s signature design philosophy, which aims to improve the healthcare experience for patients, visitors, and care providers through comfortable, beautiful, long-lasting and easy-to-clean products. The company has demonstrated leadership particularly in Behavioral Health design in recent years, most recently taking home HCD’s 2021 Nightingale GOLD Award for its Flo Dining Collection for Behavioral Health and continuing to introduce durable, yet comfortable designs that encourage healing in high-use settings.
Stance’s growing collection of general and Behavioral Health products, including Valet, can be experienced in person at the company’s new showroom and design collaborative located in Charlotte, N.C., by appointment only.
Follow along on Stance Healthcare’s blog, LinkedIn, and Instagram for regular updates on upcoming product launches, as well as engaging content centered on Stance’s Improving Lives by Design mission that educates and inspires.
About Stance Healthcare Founded in 2006, Stance Healthcare manufactures furniture for healing environments, with a particular focus on hospitals and behavioral health facilities. Stance Healthcare has a reputation for providing high-quality products that meet the ever-evolving demands in the areas of design, comfort, safety, durability, renewability, infection control and environmental sustainability. With a strong understanding of patient-centered design, Stance Healthcare is committed to providing innovative furniture solutions that support the healing process. Please visit stancehealthcare.com for the latest news and in-depth information on Stance Healthcare and visit https://stancebh.com/ to learn more about our Behavioral Health offerings and insights.
Media Contact: Allison Eckley, The Brandon Agency 336.414.4972
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Valet Lounge Seating Collection: New Bases Take Flexibility to The Next LevelWednesday, May 25, 2022
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With decades of experience providing quality healthcare furniture for all types of settings, Stance Healthcare understands the importance of a solid foundation. The recent additions of wood and swivel star base chairs to our Valet Lounge Seating collection is the latest example.
Adding more variety to an already-versatile line, the addition of the two new base options will help Valet support more needs and complement more styles and settings than ever before. All while maintaining an inviting look and feel that create a space of respite and help end-users feel more at ease in more healthcare environments – from the doctor’s office to the patient’s bedside.
The new wood base adds a sense of warmth in addition to reliable durability and a classically modern look from the ground up. This base is offered in an array of finishes to fit any fabric option – including our newest finish colors, Aria, White Chocolate, Dolce Vita, and Palomino – in any setting.
The swivel star base allows for more range of movement without sacrificing strength and stability. Offered in a polished aluminum finish, this versatile new base design can be customized with a variety of fabrics that leave plenty of room for custom design possibilities – from the simple and understated to the curated fabric collection developed in collaboration with CF Stinson.
Like every product in the Valet Lounge Seating collection, the wood and swivel base models offer contemporary flair, designer-curated fabric options, and durable, molded-foam comfort. While color, fabric and finish options might seem like simple style preferences, it’s details like these that help contribute to a positive, healing healthcare environment.
Offering comfort and durability is a balance, and Stance strives to strike this balance with every single product we manufacture. The finishes used in those products play a significant role in achieving that balance. Finishes and colors play a factor in the overall experience, and in commercial settings like healthcare, selecting the materials and finishes must be intentional. These decisions are made with care and consideration to provide users with a better experience across a variety of healthcare settings, from hospitals to specialty treatment centers. By using soft design lines and soothing tones, patterns, and hues that convey a sense of calm and comfort, the Valet line supports Stance’s signature design philosophy: Improving Lives by Design. This commitment aims to improve the healthcare experience for patients, visitors, and care providers through comfortable, beautiful, long-lasting and easy-to-clean products.
Learn more about all the forms, fabrics, and finishes of Stance Healthcare’s Valet line of lounge furniture here.
About Stance Healthcare Founded in 2006, Stance Healthcare manufactures furniture for healing environments, with a particular focus on hospitals and behavioral health facilities. Stance Healthcare has a reputation for providing high-quality products that meet ever-evolving demands in the areas of design, comfort, safety, durability, renewability, infection control and environmental sustainability. With a strong understanding of patient-centered design, Stance Healthcare is committed to providing innovative furniture solutions that support the healing process. Please visit stancehealthcare.com for the latest news and in-depth information on Stance Healthcare and visit https://stancebh.com/ to learn more about our Behavioral Health offerings and insights.
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Overbed Tables: Bringing form, function and flexibility to the bedside.Thursday, April 28, 2022
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Stance Healthcare’s lineup of Overbed tables provides patients with versatility and comfort in any healthcare setting.
Overbed tables are essential to the healthcare experience, as they allow patients to eat their meals in comfort, play games, read, write, and hold important items like medicine, remotes and cell phones. By giving patients a place to keep their things, overbed tables prevent caregivers from having to fetch items – freeing them up to focus on the health and wellness of their patients. It’s just another way Stance Healthcare supports a positive healthcare experience for everyone involved.
With our lineup of five overbed table options – the Eclipse, Transcend, Olsen, Victory, and Split-Top models – we’re proud to offer the largest product selection in the category, while continuing to identify new ways to evolve our products in ways that help our customers serve their patients better.
Each of our overbed tables can be customized with finishes to fit the aesthetic of many different applications, with functionality options like low-profile bases that can be used with recliners and low clearance beds, infinite height positioning for maximum comfort, and secondary surface tops, depending on the design.
While each Stance Healthcare overbed table has unique features and functionalities, they all can be used in hospitals for acute and clinical care. And they are particularly useful for patients who are recovering from surgery or have physical limitations – providing them with independence in an environment where they can oftentimes feel helpless.
For a simple, affordable and functional overbed table that will last, we have our Eclipse model. Eclipse offers a seamless thermoformed top with spill containment feature and an optional vanity tray with mirror. Its simple, lightweight design and ability to work with normal beds make it the perfect choice for senior living environments.
Our Transcend overbed table takes functionality to the next level with a seamless thermoformed top with spill-containment feature, an optional vanity tray with mirror, U-base design that fits around bed mechanisms which extend to the floor, low-profile base that’s compatible with late-model hospital beds, and pneumatic cylinder for height positioning.
For those who need a little more tabletop, our Olsen overbed table features a secondary surface area, along with a seamless thermoformed or solid surface top with spill containment feature, an optional vanity tray with mirror, U-base design that fits around bed mechanisms which extend to the floor, low-profile base that’s compatible with late-model hospital beds, and pneumatic cylinder for height positioning. Due to its affordable price point, Olsen is a great model for senior living.
Our Victory table offers a little more flexibility with its choice of a C-base or U-base design, while also boasting a seamless thermoformed top with spill containment feature, an optional vanity tray with mirror, low-profile base that’s compatible with late-model hospital beds, and pneumatic cylinder for height positioning.
And, lastly, there’s our Split Top model, designed with maximum versatility and functionality in mind. Our Split-Top overbed table boasts a seamless thermoformed top with spill containment feature, an optional vanity tray with mirror, choice of C-Base, U-base or H-base design, low-profile base that’s compatible with late-model hospital beds, pneumatic cylinder for height positioning and a secondary surface area.
From multi-feature versatility and durable, high-quality designs, to the trust and comfort that comes with partnering with Stance Healthcare’s seasoned product development and design team – we bring a lot to the table. Learn more about all the forms and functions of our overbed tables here.
About Stance Healthcare Founded in 2006, Stance Healthcare manufactures furniture for healing environments, with a particular focus on hospitals and behavioral health facilities. Stance Healthcare has a reputation for providing high-quality products that meet the ever-evolving demands in the areas of design, comfort, safety, durability, renewability, infection control and environmental sustainability. With a strong understanding of patient-centered design, Stance Healthcare is committed to providing innovative furniture solutions that support the healing process. Please visit stancehealthcare.com for the latest news and in-depth information on Stance Healthcare and visit https://stancebh.com/ to learn more about our Behavioral Health offerings and insights.
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Answering the call to support flexible healthcare spaces in the post-COVID eraWednesday, April 20, 2022
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In the same way that the pandemic highlighted the everyday heroism of healthcare workers, it has also inspired opportunities to improve the way care is delivered. Those who support healthcare environments through design and product support, like we do, can be instrumental in making such positive impacts on the patient, visitor, and care provider’s experiences. And while the learning is still in progress, one lesson from the COVID era has already changed the way we should approach healthcare facility planning for the long-term: the ever-present need to adapt.
At Stance Healthcare, we were well-positioned to rise to this challenge, as we have always taken pride in manufacturing products that are flexible and highly customizable for many healthcare settings. It’s a commitment that bore fruit amid the heart of the COVID crisis: One year into the pandemic, Stance supported our most aggressive year of new product releases – overcoming supply chain challenges and ongoing market uncertainty to bring new, cleanable, comfortable, adaptable furniture collections to facilities at a time they needed them most. From pop-up triage areas to consultative spaces, these are products that can serve many purposes in a given day – to create what our Behavioral Health Interior Designer, Suzanne Fawley, likes to refer to as “space within space” as needed.
As our catalog continues to grow, I want to highlight a few of Stance’s best “multi-tasker” collections that help support flexible spaces in healthcare settings:
Core to our Improving Lives by Design brand mission, Stance is continually working to innovate new products that support improved healthcare experiences for patients, visitors, and care providers. But it’s not just our furniture itself that’s adaptable. As a family-owned company, we take pride in our ability to also be nimble from a customer service perspective, offering our customers a level of agility and flexibility, including endless options to customize, that is not commonly available in the industry.
To our wonderful customers and Stance team members, thank you for supporting our commitment to Improving Lives by Design by valuing adaptability in everything we create and do. Stay tuned for more to come from Stance in 2022!
– Carl
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Stance Healthcare introduces 4 new finish colorsTuesday, April 5, 2022
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Stance Healthcare and Stance Behavioral Health has added four new finish colors to our growing product selections portfolio. The new finish colors – Aria, White Chocolate, Dolce Vita, and Palomino are durable custom finishes designed to last.
A unique offering in the healthcare furniture marketplace, Stance’s new color options will match across all types of finishes, including laminate, thermofoil, and wood. Although other furniture makers might offer a variety of colors in each finish, they don’t always match across all finishes.
How does that work? Take our Zurich table, for instance: It comes with a thermofoil top and wooden legs. If you picked one color for both, the finishes will still match.
Wait… isn’t it just furniture? It might appear so. But it’s much more than that.
Anyone can put out a chair and call it a waiting room. Or, provide a place to rest for longer periods, in various healthcare environments. But thoughtful, intuitive products from Stance strive to go a bit further than that.
Our Clover Lounge Collection is a prime example of how we follow through on this commitment. These chairs – offered in one-, two-, or three-person designs – take into consideration so much more than simply providing a place to sit.
From top to bottom, every aspect of Clover is engineered to provide more comfort, more room, and convenience for the end-user: In shape (roomy for comfort for all types); in its ease-of-care (stain-resistant material); and in its amenities (such as the charging port, optional on the Clover Collection). In the same way, the finish might seem like an afterthought. But it’s yet another integral element that makes Stance’s products uniquely valuable to healthcare facilities and the people they serve.
Why finishes matter Stance uses materials built to stand the test of time. That’s important from a budget standpoint – healthcare facilities want durable pieces that withstand wear and tear and are easy to maintain. Offering comfort and durability is a balance, as the material isn’t usually hearty – and a lot of materials aren't usually comforting. Answering this challenge, Stance strives to strike this balance with every product we manufacture, and the finishes we use play a significant role in how we achieve this.
Finishes and colors play a factor in our moods, and in commercial settings including healthcare, color selections must be intentional. For example, a fast-food restaurant might select colors that encourage busyness for quick eating, such as red; in a healthcare setting, we aim for the opposite: soothing tones, patterns, and hues that conjure a sense of calm and comfort in patients, care providers, and visitors. Finishes in Stance Behavioral Health’s collection convey a neutral feel.
What’s the advantage of Stance Healthcare’s finishes? It’s interesting to note that furniture design for healthcare use isn’t the same as other applications.
Designers can take certification exams specifically for healthcare design, including the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers exam and the Certified Healthcare Designer® (CHID) certificate exam. Stance enlists such experts, including our Behavioral Health Interior Designer, Suzanne Fawley, CHID, to provide product design knowledge – including insights about finishes – needed to support healing environments.
Who is Stance Healthcare? Since its founding in 2006, Stance Healthcare has made furniture for healing environments. We’ve built a reputation for building products of quality to meet evolving demands. Our products focus on:
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Christy Evangelista 46 July 12, 2022 |