FGI’s 2018 Guidelines Released on MADCAD

The Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) is pleased to announce the release of the 2018 Guidelines for Design and Construction. For the this edition of its minimum standards, FGI has expanded the series from two to three documents: the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals; the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Residential Health, Care, and Support Facilities, and the newest publication in the series Guidelines for Design and Construction of Outpatient Facilities.

New Outpatient Guidelines

The U.S. health care industry is continually working to improve efficiency and patient satisfaction while reducing costs. These opposing pressures have helped to create a trend that is moving the provision of many services from hospitals to outpatient facilities. Surgeries once limited to hospital settings, such as joint replacements, are now offered in ambulatory surgery centers; some procedures formerly limited to procedure rooms are now conducted in exam rooms; and some exams are now performed via telemedicine. These trends impact not only the delivery of care, but also the design of health care facilities. To support this evolution in practice, FGI separated its design and construction requirements for outpatient facilities from those for hospitals.

The primary goal in developing the new Outpatient Guidelines was to make its requirements flexible enough to address the expanding variety of outpatient facilities being designed today. Included facility types range from small clinics, doctor’s offices, and tenant improvements in a larger building to medical office buildings that house multiple clinical services and large freestanding imaging or surgery centers. As well, the Outpatient Document Group, a subcommittee of the Health Guidelines Revision Committee, added text to help users of the document apply its requirements to projects of all sizes and complexities. “We kept keenly focused on what a minimum requirement could be that established the best possible patient care/experience while watching every dollar spent on facilities,” explains John P. Kouletsis, AIA, EDAC, Outpatient Document Group co-chair.

Updates for Hospital Guidelines

Changes to the 2018 Hospital Guidelines clarify requirements and allow flexibility in some designs to support development of facilities that will be functional over the long term. Key changes affect requirements and recommendations for clinical telemedicine spaces; accommodations for patients of size; mobile/transportable units; sterile processing; and examination, procedure, operating, and imaging rooms. “In the development of the 2018 Hospital Guidelines, the Hospital Document Group took a good hard look at the previous edition to review, validate, or eliminate language to assure the new document accurately reflects our understanding of what minimum standards are,” says Wade Rudolph, MBA, CHFM, Hospital Document Group co-chair.

Expanded Residential Guidelines

The 2018 Residential Guidelines document refines the 2014 edition requirements and—stemming from the needs of the residential long-term care marketplace—provides guidance for two additional facility types: long-term residential substance abuse treatment facilities and settings for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. The revision committee made a concerted effort to base changes on evidence-based research, information from subject matter experts, and experience in the field across a broad spectrum of interrelated disciplines. Jane M. Rohde, AIA, FIIDA, ASID, ACHA, CHID, LEED AP BD+C, GGA-EB, Residential Document Group co-chair, calls the 2018 Residential Guidelines “real-life guidance that is directly applicable to the long-term care marketplace.”

FGI Partners with MADCAD for Superior User Experience

For a number of years, users of the Guidelines have requested site licenses to access the documents electronically. Fulfilling that request for the 2018 edition was a key priority for the FGI Board of Directors. FGI selected MADCAD to be the provider because, as the premier resource for online access to building codes and standards, the company delivers superior usability and flexibility. MADCAD provides firms with the ability to create a customized code library from more than 80,000 titles that allows staff to access codes and standards from the field, view cross-references via live links, search the content, and create and save annotations in the documents.

MADCAD offers Guidelines users a variety of ways to access the 2018 documents, which can be tailored to each company’s needs. For example, Guidelines users are able to purchase the 2018 edition in paperback, single-user license, and site license formats. Bundling of the Guidelines products is available (including previous editions), with discounts calculated when ordering for multiple locations and users or purchasing multiple books.

Beyond Fundamentals

Concurrent with the release of the 2018 Guidelines, FGI is introducing a subscription-based Beyond Fundamentals service. Although the Guidelines content is updated every four years, health care trends and innovations emerge and evolve much more rapidly, significantly affecting the planning, design, and construction of health and residential care facilities. Beyond Fundamentals was conceived as a way to respond to this dynamic environment.

The Beyond Fundamentals library is intended to augment the FGI Guidelines documents by expanding on their minimum design requirements. FGI will offer new and exclusive content in response to trends, practices, and new technologies in health and residential care settings.

For the 2018 Guidelines, a Beyond Fundamentals subscription will be included with an annual single-user or site license through MADCAD. Beyond Fundamentals is also being offered to print book purchasers and other single-user subscribers as a $25/year subscription and to other site license subscribers as a $65/year subscription. As FGI continues to develop the Beyond Fundamentals library, subscribers can expect to access timely information and guidance regarding the latest thinking on how the built environment can better support people, practices, and developing technology in health and residential care settings.