Health Guidelines Revision Process Opens

How do you . . . propose changes to the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities?

Summary: Anyone with a suggestion for improving the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities is invited to submit proposed changes through September 30, 2007, for consideration for the 2010 edition.

The Health Guidelines Revision Committee, in conjunction with the Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) and the AIA, seeks proposed changes to the current 2006 edition in patient- and staff-related building design and construction issues such as:

• Use of patient lift devices
• Imaging technologies used in operating rooms
• Bariatric accommodations
• Sound design and vibration in health-care environments
• Single-bed rooms beyond medical/surgical and obstetric facilities
• Environment of care
• Infection control
• Health-care facility engineering.

More than 40 states use the Guidelines to regulate the design and construction of health-care facilities. Architects, engineers, and health-care professionals also reference it regularly. Sections of the book scheduled for updating for 2010 include the chapter on small hospitals (new in the 2006 edition) and sections on imaging, emergency, obstetric, and psychiatric facilities in both the hospital and ambulatory care parts of the book. As follow-up to the expansion of the outpatient facility material in the 2006 edition, chapters on freestanding urgent care, office surgical, renal dialysis, and endoscopy facilities, among others, will be carefully reviewed.

For more information on the proposal submittal process, visit the FGI Web site and follow the “Changes to Guidelines” link to “Proposals and Comments.”