FGI Bulletin #8

Learn About Changes in the 2018 Guidelines—No Travel Necessary!

FGI is excited to announce the launch of a new series of continuing education webinars. Offered exclusively through MADCAD, the webinars will address a breadth of topics related to the 2018 Guidelines documents. This series provides an excellent opportunity to learn about the Guidelines directly from those who wrote the standards.

Developed to broaden understanding of the Guidelines documents and the revision process and to highlight key changes in the current edition, the FGI webinars provide exceptional value and convenience. Rather than webinars hosted on a schedule that may not suit your needs, FGI’s webinars are available any time, on-demand. This provides organizations the flexibility to add the webinars to their professional development offerings or lunch-and-learn programs. Subscriptions are completely customizable to meet an individual’s or an organization’s needs, and registered viewers can earn continuing education units needed to maintain their credentials.

Each webinar in the series is presented by members of the Health Guidelines Revision Committee, the committee responsible for revising the Guidelines. Topics covered are:

• Use of the Guidelines from an architect’s, owner’s, and AHJ’s perspective
• Overview of the major changes in the 2018 Guidelines
• Low-acuity patient treatment stations in the emergency department
• Exam, procedure, operating room classifications
• Imaging room classifications
• Accommodations for care of patients of size
• Sterile processing department
• Resident-centered regulatory improvements
• Flexible application of the Outpatient Guidelines
• Creating and applying a functional program and safety risk assessment

11/21/2022 UPDATE: The 2018 FGI webinar series is available free of charge on FGI’s YouTube channel.

New FGI Guidelines Adoption Map

Wondering if your next health care or residential care facility project must comply with the FGI Guidelines? If so, you’re not alone. FGI fields many requests for information about how states and accrediting organizations use the Guidelines. Because each state uses the Guidelines differently and adopts its requirements for different facility types, it’s essential to know the requirements for every state where you have projects. To help in this endeavor, FGI has created an interactive adoption map.

Click a state in the map to learn how that state uses the Hospital, Outpatient, and Residential Guidelines—which edition, what facility types, whether use of a more recent edition is permitted, and more. The colors on the map show the edition states have adopted for hospitals. When you click a state, the box that pops up describes the state’s use in detail, including application of Guidelines requirements to outpatient and residential care facilities.

As always, we recommend checking with the state department of health or other responsible state agency to confirm state regulations. The information provided on the map should not be relied upon to make final decisions for a design/construction project.

FGI Reexamines the Exam Room at SLS Conference

On July 27, 2018, FGI presented a two-hour workshop that delved into the requirements of examination rooms across the three 2018 Guidelines documents. The workshop was envisioned as a means to review current exam room requirements and gather input on a range of considerations, including minimum square footages, privacy, patient interaction, lighting, security, equipment, and other requirements. Hosted by the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH) and the American College of Healthcare Architects (ACHA)—with FGI, three of the four Pillars of Health Care Architecture—the workshop took place at the AAH-ACHA Summer Leadership Summit in Chicago.

To keep the Guidelines for Design and Construction documents current with the delivery of care, technology, and patient populations served, FGI must periodically reexamine the spaces in hospitals, outpatient facilities, and residential care facilities. Workshop attendees evaluated the current requirements for an exam/emergency department (ED) treatment room in both inpatient and outpatient settings, a double-doored outpatient specialty exam room, an ED secure holding room, and a pediatric ED exam room to ensure the Guidelines requirements continue to meet the needs of clinicians and patients.

Workshop participants were divided into subgroups to debate the requirements for these spaces and to consider how the requisite baselines should be revised. Dual goals of the exercise were to collect recommendations for changes in the 2022 edition and to go “beyond the fundamental” requirements by recommending best practices for the design of exam rooms. The group discussions also yielded a greater understanding of the issues and forces that ultimately will shape the 2022 edition of the Guidelines.

Learn How to Apply the FGI Imaging Classification System

Do you have questions about applying the new imaging classification system in the 2018 Hospital and Outpatient Guidelines documents? An article and related tips by Health Guidelines Revision Committee member Tobias Gilk in the August 2018 issue of Health Facilities Management can help. Toby describes transitions in imaging services and how the classification system can help designers and health care organizations develop imaging facilities that more easily adapt to changes in equipment and use over time. Further discussion of this topic will be available in a webinar on the 2018 Guidelines imaging requirements hosted by Toby and fellow HGRC member Bryan Langlands as part of FGI’s new webinar series, [now found on FGI’s Youtube channel).

The first interpretations of language in the 2018 FGI Guidelines have been issued to clarify two issues. Regarding the requirements for emergency departments and freestanding emergency facilities, the question was asked whether a single room can be used as both a treatment room and a secure holding room. The answer is that the Hospital and Outpatient Guidelines documents do not prohibit this dual use as long as the room meets the Guidelines requirements for both space types, including the patient safety requirements for the secure holding room.

The second interpretation clarifies configuration of the space created by clearances around the foot of a critical care bed and includes a diagram. Interpretations for the Guidelines documents are posted on the FGI website at the bottom of the Interpretations page.

New Erratum on General Storage in Psychiatric Hospitals (and More to Come)

An error in the size required for general storage in a psychiatric hospital that was introduced in the 2014 edition of the Hospital/Outpatient Guidelines was recently discovered. In the development of the 2014 Guidelines, an effort was made to consolidate the general support facility requirements (including materials management, which covers general storage) for hospitals in the common elements chapter. Although this was generally a good move, it appears the effect on the requirement for general storage in psychiatric hospitals was overlooked. Because these hospitals don’t use as many supplies as other hospital facility types, a much smaller area for general storage is required; the erratum returns the general storage requirement for psychiatric hospitals to 4 square feet per inpatient bed. (Please note this does not refer to patient or other storage requirements in the psychiatric hospital chapter.) This erratum applies to both the 2014 and the 2018 editions of the Guidelines; check here on the FGI website for current versions of Guidelines errata sheets.

FGI’s Not-to-be-Missed Sessions at HCD 2018

When: November 10-13, 2018
Where: Phoenix Convention Center
Where to register: www.hcdexpo.com/attendee/registration-and-pricing

FGI is looking forward to the upcoming 2018 Healthcare Design Expo & Conference. We are delighted to be represented by eight talented presenters for six education sessions. This year, themes of the presentations range from highlights of the 2018 Guidelines to topics anchoring FGI’s new Beyond Fundamentals digital library. We hope to see you at the sessions and throughout the conference.

E36 Low-Acuity Treatment Stations: Maximizing Efficiency and Shortening ED Visits 11/11/2018 from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.	Bryan Langlands, AIA, ACHA, EDAC, LEED GA David Vincent, AIA, ACHA, LEED AP Christine Carr, MD, CPE, FACEP
E45 Hospital, Outpatient, and Residential… Oh My! The 2018 Guidelines and What You Need to Know 11/12/2018 from 9:45 – 10:45 a.m.	Doug Erickson, FASHE, CHFM, HFDP, CHC
E83 Get the Latest Insights: FGI’s Beyond Fundamentals 11/13/2018 from 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.	Doug Erickson, Bryan Langlands
E85 What You Need to Know About Acoustics in 2018 11/13/2018 from 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.	Elizabeth Valmont, PhD, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP
E95 Frankenstein Your Outpatient Design: Navigating the 2018 FGI Guidelines 11/13/2018 from 1:15 – 2:15 p.m.	John Williams, Program Mgr., Washington State DOH Kirsten Waltz, AIA, ACHA, EDAC, LEED AP
E106 Looking into the Hybrid Operating Room of the Future 11/13/2018 from 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.	Mary Fearon, MSN, RN, CNOR Bryan Langlands

FGI Participation at Conferences

Members of the Health Guidelines Revision Committee (HGRC) have been engaged to speak on the 2018 Guidelines at these upcoming conferences. If you plan to attend any of these events, please stop by to learn more about the 2018 edition of the Guidelines.

Healthcare Facilities Symposium, Austin, Tex., October 8-10, 2018
Healthcare Design Expo + Conference, Phoenix, Ariz., November 10-13, 2018
PDC Summit, Phoenix, Ariz., March 17-20, 2019

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