FGI Guidelines Update Series: What’s New for 2014

FGI is providing this series of articles to introduce major changes and additions in the 2014 Guidelines for Design and Construction documents. The articles profile new material and changes in the 2014 Guidelines for acute care facilities and in the new Guidelines for residential facilities.

Although the articles will first appear in the publications of our publishing partner, ASHE, it is our intent for them to then be distributed by other health care associations, trade organizations, health care design publications, and any other interested parties. This broad dissemination is consistent with the mission of FGI “to establish and promote consensus-based guidelines and other publications, advised by research, that advance quality health care.”

The 2014 Guidelines documents have been produced with the participation of more than 200 experts in planning, design and construction, and operation of hospitals, outpatient facilities and residential health, care, and support facilities as well as health and residential care providers. The Guidelines revision cycle brings together some of the best minds in our business and through a formal consensus process develops a series of minimum design and construction standards for adoption by federal, state, and private enforcing authorities.

So, although called guidelines, the standards contained in the two documents are truly considered the “standard of care” for new construction and major renovation projects.

We hope these articles are shared widely in the health and residential care communities and that you find them valuable in applying the standards in our documents. If you have comments on the published articles, suggestions for future articles, recommendations for revising the language in the Guidelines, or questions about our publications or process, please contact us.

FGI Guidelines Update 1: Designing for Safety

by Ellen Taylor, AIA, MBA, EDAC

The 2014 Guidelines requires a safety risk assessment (SRA) that includes an overarching risk identification process, with considerations for infection control, patient handling, falls, medication safety, psychiatric injury, immobility, and security. Read this article to learn more about what this means for your health care facility project.

FGI Guidelines Update 2: Medication Safety Zones

by Eileen Malone, RN, MSN, MS, EDAC

The 2014 FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals and Outpatient Facilities includes new requirements for assessing medication safety risks and identifying and designing medication safety zones to help health care organizations address the high rate of medication errors in health care today. This article introduces the new requirements and provides a resource list for more information.

FGI Guidelines Update 3: Operating Room Requirements for 2014 and Beyond

by Byron Burlingame, MS, RN, CNOR

Modifications were made to the inpatient and outpatient surgery requirements in the 2014 FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals and Outpatient Facilities to bring the requirements for inpatient and outpatient surgery facilities into closer alignment. This article outlines these changes for operating rooms as well as for support areas for the surgical suite.

FGI Guidelines Update 4: Sterile Processing in the Surgical Suite

This article has been superseded by changes made for sterile processing facilities in the 2018 FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction documents for hospitals and outpatient facilities. Please see the “Major Additions and Revisions” essays for both documents (posted on the page linked in the previous sentence) for a brief explanation of the changes.

FGI Guidelines Update 5: Updated Acoustic Criteria Address Noise Issue

by David M. Sykes

The Acoustics Working Group worked to improve the acoustic criteria in the 2014 FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals and Outpatient Facilities, clarifying requirements and making some changes in response to use of the acoustic requirements in the 2010 Guidelines in the field. The changes made are summarized in this article.

FGI Guidelines Update 6: Clarification of Functional Program Requirements

by Ken Cates and Heather Livingston, sidebar by Jane Rohde

The 2014 HGRC Focus Group on Planning, Design, and Construction undertook a comprehensive review of how the functional program is addressed in the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals and Outpatient Facilities. This article explains the revised, streamlined treatment of the functional program that resulted from their efforts. A sidebar discusses how the functional program was treated in the new Guidelines for Design and Construction of Residential Health, Care, and Support Facilities.

2014 FGI Update SRA 130711 2014 FGI Update MSZ 130926 2014 FGI Update ORs 2014 FGI Update Acoustic Criteria FGI Update Functional Program