Why We Work in the Healthcare Furniture Business

Guest Blogger: Becky Van Leur

I was asked to write a blog for the OstermanCron Healthcare Team this month, which is totally a foreign concept to me. Thoughts of healthcare reform, infection control, and changes in healthcare furniture all circled in my head for weeks while my marketing person patiently awaited my thoughts of wisdom.

Instead of writing about a topic like healthcare seating, I would like to dedicate this hospital furniture blog to a friend of mine, Jennifer Hooker, who passed away this week to cancer at the age of 54. Jenny was a college friend of mine for four years and we completed our Interior Design degrees from EKU in 1984. Shortly after, she and I would become fierce competitors in Cincinnati in the world of healthcare furniture sales and design. While we had been good friends, we did not shy away from competing in obtaining the vast opportunities in the field of healthcare furniture.

A few years ago, she moved to Europe and became a mother of two. We lost touch until last year with just a brief “catch up” email on our lives. She was working at a healthcare furniture dealership in Indianapolis and back again amongst the flurry of healthcare activity there. She worked day and night with a passion to make healthcare environments a better place for patients and their families.

I believe that we are all involved in hospital furniture design for a purpose – whether it is to help others in times of illnesses and tragedies, whether we have had our own personal experiences in the hospitals and wish to make this environment a better place, or even if we just value the relationships that we form with clients and staff at the facilities where we work.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jenny’s family, co-workers, and healthcare clients. She will be truly missed.