For the healthcare industry, challenges come in all sizes, from the massive cost-containment issues to microscopic carriers of disease. Here's what several decision-makers had to say about how CORIAN^® helps meet those challenges

HARRY COLE
CHIEF, ENGINEERING SERVICE
DEPT. OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
WEST LOS ANGELES MEDICAL CENTER

Long-term durability and long-term cost are why we went with CORIAN^®. We have had the tile for years, and the grout discolors and is difficult to clean. With CORIAN^®, we have seamless or nongrouted-type joints. And we appreciate the germicidal/infection-control aspects.

In corridors, we installed CORIAN^® right on top of the existing tile wainscoting. And in public bathrooms, we put CORIAN^® in for partitions and wainscoting.

With CORIAN^®, the need for cleaning is much reduced. It's a  lot easier to maintain than tile. Now we just spray cleaner on the squeegee it off, whereas with the grouted tile wall we had to clean each and every grouted space.

I'm very much sold on CORIAN^®.

SARAH SLEDGE
ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
MANAGER III

DEPARTMENT OF CORONER
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES

Our building is approximately 30 years old now and the laboratories have never been redone. And as a result, over the last 30 years, the laminate countertops were just horrible stained. The stains couldn't be removed. The walls in our crypts were concrete, and there were cracks with lots of room for the growth of all kinds of bacteria and fungi. That's when we began looking at alternative materials.

CORIAN^® was the only product that could withstand our testing. Our chief of laboratories tested samples of CORIAN^® to see how much damage he could do to it. We put it through every imaginable test which was available in our laboratories. And no matter what we did to CORIAN^® , we couldn't destroy it.

From a budgetary perspective, warranty and the ability to clean it after all our testing...CORIAN^® outranked all the other materials we tested.

If you can pass a coroners' test, you can pass any test. Due to the volume and the different types of chemicals that we use, we're very tough on products. We have to treat everything that comes under our purview as infectious, highly infectious. Now that the CORIAN^® is in place, we're able to do a total cleaning without having the additional worry of all the bacteria that grow in cracks.

When we work with public facilities, whatever material we use has to be as close to maintenance-free and vandal-proof as possible. So we look for those materials and in the past 10 years, we've specified CORIAN^® more, and more and more.

Basically there's nothing else to specify in areas of high use and abuse than CORIAN^® Polyester products that are supposed to be comparable, just aren't .

I wish people understood quality better. The majority of users don't know the difference between the products, and we have to educate them. Yet when they see examples, they usually come back and replace older materials with CORIAN^®.  The life cycle charts for CORIAN^® have helped me sell it to clients because when they look at the costs of changing another material, it convinces them to use CORIAN^®.