The FGI Code/Guidelines documents

The 2026 FGI Codes and FGI Handbooks are scheduled for release in fall 2026.

The FGI Codes establish the baseline, consensus-based minimum standards for the planning, design, and construction of hospitals, outpatient settings, and residential care and support settings. Updated to reflect evolving clinical practices, baseline infection control, and emerging technological workflows, the FGI Codes provide the fundamental framework necessary for regulatory compliance and essential facility safety.

To help health care leaders, architects, designers, and regulators implement these standards effectively, FGI will concurrently launch the all-new FGI Handbooks for Planning and Design.

While the codes detail the baseline regulations, the handbooks serve as an ultimate companion guide, bridging the gap between regulatory language and practical, user-centered application. The FGI Handbooks are a rich and highly visual integration of code requirements with detailed layout diagrams, real-world photos, explanatory commentary on code intent, and best-practice guidance to help teams go beyond the minimums.

Major Additions and Revisions in the 2026 Edition

Unlocking Throughput: Discharged patient waiting facilities

A few hours can make all the difference in a hospital’s workflow. While inpatient rooms are built to support patients through discharge, operational delays in transportation, prescriptions, or final instructions frequently slow down bed turnover. This creates a ripple effect: emergency departments back up and entire units feel the drag of an operational problem without a dedicated architectural home.

The 2026 FGI Hospital Code answers this need by establishing standards for discharged patient waiting facilities (or discharge lounges). Already adopted informally by many hospitals, these spaces treat discharge as a key part of throughput rather than an afterthought. They provide a supervised, comfortable, and visible area for patients who no longer need inpatient care but require time for transportation, allowing hospitals to free up acute care beds faster while keeping transitioning patients safe.

Behavioral Health: Spaces built for safety, dignity, and stabilization

Behavioral health care remains one of the most rapidly evolving areas of design. The 2026 FGI Codes reflect a cultural shift, moving behavioral health from the periphery of facility design to the core of how environments are planned.

• Medical psychiatry patient care units: A major addition to the FGI Hospital Code provides requirements for individuals who require both behavioral health support and active medical treatment. This new section defines expectations for family-centered care support areas, ligature-resistant strategies appropriate for medically complex patients, safe access to medical equipment, and dedicated social/group therapy spaces.
• Behavioral health crisis centers: The FGI Outpatient Code relocates and expands these requirements, clarifying distinct expectations for both community-based facilities and those embedded in freestanding emergency departments (high-acuity, urgent-care style settings). These environments must balance safety and dignity via continuous observation zones, sensory-regulation calming rooms, and spaces that enable stabilization rather than containment.
• Wearable duress alarm systems: The FGI Hospital Code now requires reliable, location-pinpointing wearable duress systems for staff in behavioral health units, connected to a continuously staffed monitoring point.

Ambulatory Expansion & Specialized Care

Two new chapters in the 2026 FGI Outpatient Code reflect the increasing expansion and utilization of ambulatory care:

• Short-stay centers: Designed for patients requiring up to 72 hours of monitoring, these centers bridge the gap between outpatient and inpatient care, defining expectations for patient rooms, observation strategies, and support services.
• Sleep disorder centers: A new dedicated chapter recognizes the diagnostic importance of occupant-controlled environmental conditions, detailing strict requirements for acoustics, lighting, and privacy.

Readiness and Distributed Care Infrastructure

• Incident command centers: Moving past the makeshift emergency rooms of the COVID-19 pandemic, the FGI Hospital Code formalizes resiliency by requiring purpose-built incident command centers. These spaces must be capable of quick activation, support essential electrical systems, and maintain operations throughout prolonged emergencies.
• Mobile units: As health systems reach deeper into communities, mobile units have evolved into core components of distributed care. The 2026 FGI Hospital and Outpatient Codes clarify infrastructure expectations for mobile units that connect to host facilities, addressing onboard systems, site infrastructure, and safety requirements to ensure the environment supports care beyond permanent facility walls.

Residential Care Reimagined

The FGI Residential Code introduces vital updates to residential care and support settings, driven by an increased recognition of resident dignity, autonomy, and social well-being. Key updates include:

• Single-resident rooms: New requirements for 90 percent of resident rooms to be single-resident in new construction begin transitioning long-term care environments toward enhanced privacy and infection control as a standard framework.
• New behavioral and mental health chapter: A dedicated chapter has been added explicitly for residential behavioral and mental health treatment facilities.
• Enhanced accessibility and community: Requirements for individuals of size and standards for communal dining and activity spaces have been strengthened to support accessibility and mobility for residents and foster a sense of community among residents.