Discover the New Patient Room Product Helping Families Care for Loved Ones

Anyone who has spent time in a patient room knows that it can be both difficult and awkward for family members to manage all aspects of their loved one’s care. While wanting to be active participants, the unfamiliar environment and constraints on space, storage, and power force family members to create stopgaps during their stay: sleeping on recliners, eating meals in their lap, working in the dark, and so on. To solve for this dynamic faced by families in the patient room, Steelcase introduced a new product at NeoCon in June: Surround.

Surround is a configurable sofa with storage, lighting, power, surface, and a bed integrated into the design. It was created in response to key findings from Steelcase Health research, which sought to better understand how families are involved in the healthcare experience. The finding of the research showed five key issues that can affect family members’ wellbeing in a patient room:

1. Family members blocked from critical communications
2. Difficult sleeping conditions
3. No place to share a meal
4. Uncomfortable hospitality environment
5. Nowhere to plug in

These findings show that while family members are critical to patient care and wellbeing, the patient room is not often an environment where their fundamental needs are met.

Steelcase Surround was created to solve for the five key findings above. Surround allows family members to effectively communicate with clinicians and patients, with a surface for note-taking and storage areas for important literature and belongings. And with integrated power and USB ports, the seat ensures that family members can stay connected even throughout their loved one’s stay.

Surround also allows for comfortable sleeping, with a fold-down sleeper built into the product. No more do family members have to create makeshift beds, or worry about waking their loved one with their own repositioning. Plus, the product’s high, open frame ensures the room can be easily cleaned without disruption to the family member or their belongings.

Surround’s integrated sliding table can be positioned anywhere along the seat, allowing family members to share a meal with the patient seated at the in-room recliner. Hospitality details like the display tray for cards, as well as adjustable ambient lighting, make Surround a perfect fit for every moment in the patient journey.

With Surround, the healthcare journey for both patients and families is improved, simplified, and supported. See photos of the product below, and click here to connect with one of our team members about installing Surround in your patient rooms.