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Tell hospital administrators that there's one thing they can buy that will improve staff efficiency and promote patient healing at the same time, and you have their attention. That's the pitch for Wellness Environments, which sells what it calls "patient rooms for the future."

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Nashville's MetroCenter, Wellness Environments designs, manufactures and installs patient rooms … complete to the smallest details.

"This company is founded on the concept of making everything in clinical areas patient and staff friendly. We're a one-source provider of complete clinical spaces using evidence-based design principles for every product in a room," said Victor Rumore, president and chairman of the board.

One of the company's investors, he said he was lured out of retirement "to help get this thing kick-started." Rumore is the former general manager of Nashville's Fox television affiliate WZTV and has owned TV and radio stations across the country. Other principals in the venture are Franklin Jarman, former chairman of Genesco Inc., and Nashville investor Lawson Allen.

Wellness Environments holds 19 patents on its product's design and features. The walls are 24-gauge steel covered in a synthetic veneer that looks like wood. The soundproof wall panels hang from a patented stud system. To repair plumbing or electrical systems behind the wall, workers simply pop out the panels, which are stain-resistant and antimicrobial. In fact, most surfaces, including the keyboard in the room's information area, are treated to repel germs.

The bathroom and sink areas are one-piece, molded acrylic units. "There are no seams, no joints, no grout that cause bacteria and germs," Rumore said. "Our rooms clean in about half the time and with less chemicals."

Wellness Environment rooms are divided into three zones: the patient zone, the family zone and the staff zone. Patients enjoy a patented pillow switch that allows them to control lighting, window shades and room temperature from the bed. When patients leave the bed, the bathroom light automatically turns on. The over-bed table is designed to contain a spill of up to half a gallon. Rumore said "a signature piece" of each room is a canopy above the bed. Its lighting system floods the patient zone with light when needed, and a diffuser prevents air from blowing directly on the patient. The canopy features a reading lamp and a backlit nature scene.

"It is proven that when people are looking at nature, their blood pressure goes down. If the blood pressure is reduced, then the patient heals faster," he said.

All corners in the room are rounded and grab bars abound. "Our TV doesn't hang off a wall and collect an inch of dust. It's in a specially designed armoire, and the armoire goes all the way to the ceiling. Underneath the TV, it's a closet," Rumore said.

The family zone includes a fold-down sofa sleeper with drawers underneath and a side table. In addition to the information area, the staff zone includes an acrylic wash station with standardized cabinetry so items are in a uniform place from room to room.

Rumore estimated that installation of Wellness Environment rooms takes, at a minimum, 30 percent less time than the build-out of a traditional room.

"We install 100 percent of everything in a patient room, including the ceiling and the floor, except the bed. We found out that hospitals like their own beds," he said. "When one company does all that, you're not dealing with 50 vendors, and you can finish much faster."

Wellness Environments has installed nearly 500 rooms so far in hospitals across the country. In Middle Tennessee, the company recently installed 24 rooms in the fourth-floor shell of StoneCrest Medical Center in Smyrna and 72 rooms in Sumner Regional Medical Center's new patient tower.

"We'll put in a hospital room for free and let the nurses use it and test it. If they don't like the position of something, we'll redesign it and change it. Then, when everybody loves it, we'll put the rest of the rooms in," Rumore said.

Currently, the company is installing rooms at a hospital in the Republic of Cyprus, is in negotiations with a 1,600-bed hospital in India and is pricing rooms in Athens, Greece. Rumore said the company is working to build its international business. "Because of the value of the dollar, they can literally buy a hospital room for half the cost," he said.

What's next? Rumore predicted that "the next big thing" for Wellness Environments will be evidence-based design of psychiatric rooms. The company is working with the Skyline Madison Campus to build a psychiatric demonstration room. Eventually, the company may branch out from the medical arena and into dormitories — a logical move considering the durability of the product's walls.

Wellness Environments is located in the Nashville House office building on Vantage Way. The company plans to move, probably next month, into a much larger space in the building to accommodate a showroom. For more information, visit www.wellnessenvironments.net.

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