Two products from J+J Flooring Group's Kinetex have received a Gold Award in the Flooring: Hard-Surface category of the Nightingale Awards.

The Nightingale Awards recognize contribution to the healthcare built environment through product design and innovation that contributes to healing. The awards are presented by Healthcare Design magazine and Contract magazine in partnership with the Center for Health Design.

Named after Florence Nightingale, an advocate for the improvement of care and conditions in military and civilian hospitals in the 1800s, one of the judging criteria for the awards is the product’s contribution to a healing environment. Others include functionality, quality and durability, aesthetics and style, pricing and innovation.

Kinetex, developed from the practiced approach of evidence-based design, is a textile composite flooring that offers a superior alternative to hard surface. According to the company, Kinetex can improve the quality of healthcare through four critical ways: safety, acoustics, comfort and maintenance. Kinetex can also contribute to both clinical and operational outcomes, primarily through five main categories: Infection control, life-cycle cost reduction, acoustic control, slip and fall prevention, anti-fatigue surface and rolling mobility.

Beyond its healthcare-related benefits, Kinetex' Umbra is an aesthetically sophisticated flooring option. Umbra’s colors and format combine to create a sleek and alluring complexity that provides the perfect pattern and multicolored balance for a variety of healthcare spaces.

A jury of healthcare architects, interior designers and facilities managers evaluated the entries. Jurors also visited exhibitors’ booths before the Healthcare Design Conference exhibit floor opened to examine the products, hear the backstory on their design and development and ask questions.