New Division Aims to Provide Three C’s: Comfort, Control, and Confidence for Caregivers
Work your way. This mantra has been the capstone of HAT Collective, our company dedicated to commercial office furnishings, since its inception in January of 2021. What does that mean exactly? HAT Collective provides ergonomic, design-forward and customizable workplace solutions that allow people choice and control to work their way — whether it’s standing or sitting, mobile or fixed solutions, together or apart. Empowerment leads to better productivity and, ultimately, a happier, healthier employee.
Since our launch, our HAT Collective team has been hard at work designing innovative product solutions, while also eyeing new areas for growth. Our exploration for growth has led us to the creation of HAT Collective Healthcare, which we officially introduced to the healthcare market in March during the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s Global Health Conference and Exhibition in Orlando. And although HAT Collective Healthcare is a new division, we’re not new to the healthcare industry. Through our sister brands and our parent company, Innovative Ergonomic Solutions, we’ve been designing and delivering essential healthcare products for global healthcare providers for decades. Today, we’re bringing all of our knowledge and experience into a full product portfolio under one unified offering.
A perfect extension of HAT Collective, this new division features a lineup of ergonomic and customizable products, proven to perform within demanding 24/7 healthcare environments. Areas where our unique suite of products can be utilized include: patient rooms, exam rooms, operating rooms, patient registration areas, diagnostic testing areas, and multiple other places where caregivers interact with patients.
Now, you may be thinking, “Another healthcare product brand? Do we really need it?” Good question. But here’s the deal: Where there is a sea of healthcare products to support both the on-carpet areas of a hospital (think offices and administration spaces) and off-carpet environments (think waiting rooms with chairs and patient rooms with sleeper sofas) there lives a significant opportunity to improve the “point of care” experience for our caregiver community.
Point of Care Focus
Point of Care (POC) is commonly regarded as the point of interaction where caregiving and information exchange occurs between a patient and a caregiver. POC products support multiple, essential caregiver activities. Products like medical carts (affectionately known as “workstations on wheels,” a.k.a. WOWs) or wall-mounted products can support technology needs while improving the patient experience. And this is where HAT Collective Healthcare enters.
As the majority of physicians and medical facilities have migrated to EMRs (electronic medical records), it is imperative that the way information is received by a healthcare professional is reliable, fluid, and intuitive. That transfer of information should be a caregiver’s silent, dependable partner. Additionally, caregivers today are under a tremendous amount of stress. In fact, one study we found says that 43 percent of nurses will resign within the first three years of employment. This means hospitals and healthcare organizations must find new ways to attract and retain caregiver talent. We believe this includes providing them with intuitive, dependable, and ergonomic tools that provide maximum comfort, confidence, and control.
Those three Cs — Comfort, Control and Confidence — are the core for HAT Collective Healthcare. Let’s dive into each.
Comfort
Strenuous, non-ergonomic work environments contribute to musculoskeletal issues and higher rates of employee dissatisfaction. Providing caregiver comfort is often overlooked, but it is essential when supporting our caregiver community. Providing POC products that are ergonomic and user-centric, while also fluid, intuitive, and easy-to-use, should be an integrated element to daily caregiver work.
HAT Collective Healthcare offers a suite of mobile carts that are easy to maneuver and make it seamless for caregivers to quickly pivot from one task to the next, enabling them to keep their focus on the patient while maximizing their comfort. So, providing a caregiver with a moment of respite with a cart that offers a simple footrest to alter their posture for a few seconds might seem like a simple consideration, but is a welcomed bit of comfort for a worker who is unable to sit for long periods at a time.
Control
The ability for any user to adjust and personalize a product to his or her preference is about having control. A 5-foot tall caregiver will have different needs than a colleague who is 6-feet tall; one size does not fit all. Intuitive, individual control for height adjustability, articulation, and mobility are key differentiators in thoughtfully designed products.
HAT Collective’s suite of mobile carts provides effortless, pneumatic articulation, but so do our wall-mounted options. Our wall-mount products are easy to adjust to user height preferences, and many offer flip-up capability for space saving. These products can be found in multiple areas throughout a healthcare facility. For registration use, patients and partners in care should be able to easily adjust technology to create a positive registration experience. In the patient room, caregivers want to be able to either efficiently sit next to their patient with technology while performing critical duties or simply stand and input/extract information.
Confidence
Caregivers demand dependable products meant to perform and last. These workstations are significant investments for medical facilities. Remember, the average caregiver works a 12-hour shift and spends about half of that time using technology. Caregivers that use carts or any product with integrated technology need to have the confidence that their devices will have a long-lasting battery, are easy to clean, and have the durability to withstand the rigors of a 24/7 environment.
Our Fusion Cart checks all of those boxes and features an unmatched battery life, providing reliability that’s as powerful as it gets. Additionally, having a product with anti-microbial surfaces, which are easily cleaned to help prevent the spread of germs from space to space, brings even greater peace of mind.
Why it Matters
Why does all of this matter? Consider this: After several beyond-challenging years for nurses, doctors, and all healthcare workers, caregivers themselves are re-evaluating their own positions. Specifically, where they work and how their institution supports them. Healthcare environments and products that best support caregivers with “The Three C’s” can assist in both retaining and attracting caregiver talent. Face it, it’s a real selling point. Bottom line, the more intuitive and easier the tools and technology are for the caregiver, the more attention can be given to the most important part of caregiving — the patient.
Libby Ferin is the chief marketing officer for Innovative Ergonomics Solutions, the parent company to HAT Collective Healthcare and HAT Collective, an ergonomic-focused workplace solutions brand that allows people to work their way.