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FGI Webinars on 2018 Guidelines Content

2018 Edition

Essential information about the 2018 Guidelines content is available via a series of 10 webinars presented by members of the 2018 Health Guidelines Revision Committee, the body directly responsible for writing the Guidelines. These one-hour sessions (described below) have been designed to provide rich content about the major updates in the 2018 Hospital, Outpatient, and Residential Guidelines documents.

On-demand web access on YouTube makes these educational opportunities available any time and from any place convenient for you and your staff. Organizations can offer the webinars for employee lunch-and-learn programs, or employees can watch individually.

The FGI 2018 Guidelines webinar series will:

  • Increase your understanding of how to use and apply the Guidelines.
  • Provide insights about the intent of 2018 Guidelines requirements.
  • Bring you up-to-date with states adopting the 2018 Guidelines.
  • Familiarize you with the latest thinking from the health care professionals who write the standards.

To access the webinars, visit this FGI YouTube page.

The Webinars

Each webinar is hosted by members of the Health Guidelines Revision Committee, providing viewers with a unique opportunity to gain expertise and insight from those who wrote the standards.

Use of the Guidelines for Design and Construction: An Architect’s, an Owner’s, and an AHJ’s Perspective

Presenters: Kirsten Waltz, AIA, ACHA, EDAC, LEED AP, Baystate Health; Wade Rudolph, MBA, CHFM, Mayo Clinic Health System; and John Williams, Washington State Department of Health

Description: The FGI Guidelines documents contain minimum requirements for design and construction of health and residential care facilities. This presentation will help viewers understand how to apply these requirements as minimum requirements, a starting point for more expanded designs where needed, and a base for regulatory review of facility plans. Choosing the approach appropriate for each project will help designers and care organizations provide facilities that support today’s clinical and residential care practices and offer a safe environment for patients or residents and staff.

This webinar will enable viewers to:

  1. Describe how to use the Guidelines to design facilities that offer the flexibility needed to maintain a safe environment for staff and patients/residents over time.
  2. Apply the Guidelines requirements to facility types that aren’t specifically identified in the Guidelines.
  3. Explain why beginning a project with development of a functional program and safety risk assessment is critical to a satisfactory, functional final project.
  4. Use the Guidelines throughout the project delivery process and into the postoccupancy period as a guide to creating facilities that serve their intended purpose.

2018 Guidelines Update: Changes to Keep Pace with Clinical Practices

Presenters: Douglas S. Erickson, FASHE, CHFM, HFDP, CHC, Chair, 2010, 2014, and 2018 Health Guidelines Revision Committee (HGRC), and Dana Swenson, PE, MBA, UMass Memorial Health Care System

Description: This webinar begins with a discussion of what “minimum standards” means, the consensus process used to develop the Guidelines documents, and the Facility Guidelines Institute’s new Beyond Fundamentals program, which offers draft design requirements as well as more in-depth information for applying Guidelines requirements or going beyond them. In the second half, the presenters will address new text, including accommodations for care of patients of size, accommodations for telemedicine services, and a revised chapter on mobile/transportable medical units, and summarize changes to requirements for recovery spaces; imaging, examination, procedure, and operating rooms; and sterile processing facilities.

This webinar will enable viewers to:

  1. Discuss how using the updated Guidelines for a project can provide a safer, more effective patient care environment at a reasonable cost.
  2. Describe how the new Outpatient Guidelines supports more flexible design that can be readily applied to a wide variety of outpatient facility types.
  3. Outline how changes in the 2018 Guidelines will affect the design of clinical spaces in health and residential care facilities.
  4. Explain how FGI is reinventing its process to more rigorously examine, balance, and document its minimum design requirements based on best available evidence.

Appropriate Room Use—Part 1, Exam, Procedure, and Operating Rooms

Presenters: Bryan Langlands, AIA, FACHA, EDAC, LEED GA, NBBJ, and David Shapiro, MD, CHC, CHCQM, CHPRM, LHRM, CASC, Red Hills Surgical Center

Description: This is the first of a two-part webinar intended to clarify when to apply the FGI Guidelines requirements for exam, procedure, operating, and imaging rooms. There’s much confusion as to what’s required to support anesthesia equipment in procedure and operating rooms, including when anesthesia is needed and what infrastructure is required when anesthesia is applied by patient type rather than procedure type. As a result, procedures are sometimes performed in spaces that may not support the level of intervention involved. FGI’s 2018 Health Guidelines Revision Committee made a concerted effort to align the definition and application of requirements for the various room types where procedures take place. This realignment was based on the level of invasiveness of the procedure and perceived level of risk to the patient. This webinar will help health care designers determine when a procedure or operating room is required and how to apply new clearances to support anesthesia equipment when it is used in these rooms.

This webinar will enable viewers to:

  1. Recognize the importance of learning from health care organizations what procedures are planned for procedure and operating rooms to be designed.
  2. Predict procedure and operating room design needs based on the degree of invasiveness or risk to the patient of procedures to be performed in the room.
  3. Explain how performing a safety risk assessment will help health care organizations and designers create procedure and operating rooms appropriate for the procedures to be performed in them.
  4. Take the lead in this new approach to determining design needs for procedure and operating rooms, working with a project team that includes clinicians who will be using the finished facility.

Appropriate Room Use—Part 2, Imaging Room Classifications

Presenters: Tobias Gilk, MRSO, MRSE (MRSCTM), MArch, RAD Planning, and Bryan Langlands, AIA, FACHA, EDAC, LEED GA, NBBJ

Description: This is the second part of a two-part webinar intended to clarify when to apply the FGI Guidelines requirements for exam, procedure, operating, and imaging rooms. The 2018 Health Guidelines Revision Committee created a new imaging classification system that provides basic imaging room requirements, with additional details for specific modalities, with the goal of making imaging room design more easily adaptable to new technologies. This webinar will help designers determine when a Class 1 (diagnostic), Class 2 (equivalent to a procedure room), or Class 3 (equivalent to an operating room) imaging room is required. Clearances required around the imaging equipment and patient position are also reviewed.

This webinar will enable viewers to:

  1. Recognize the importance of learning from health care organizations what procedures are planned for imaging rooms to be designed.
  2. Predict imaging room design needs based on the degree of invasiveness or risk to the patient of procedures to be performed in the room.
  3. Explain how performing a safety risk assessment will help health care organizations and designers create imaging rooms appropriate for the procedures to be performed in them.
  4. Take the lead in this new approach to determining design needs for imaging rooms, working with a project team that includes clinicians who will be using the finished facility.

Pod People: Low-Acuity Patient Treatment Stations in the ED

Presenters: Bryan Langlands, AIA, FACHA, EDAC, LEED GA, NBBJ, and Christine Carr, MD, FACEP, Medical University of South Carolina

Description: Across the United States, providers in overcrowded emergency departments (EDs) are forced to treat low-acuity vertical patients in makeshift treatment spaces (e.g., open waiting areas and hallways) that do not meet minimum standards for space, acoustics, or privacy. Health care organizations are looking for ways to manage these low-acuity patients and improve turnaround times and patient satisfaction scores for all patients.

This webinar will review the challenges of innovating in the ED design arena and introduce new concepts to be proposed for the 2022 edition of the FGI Guidelines. Low-acuity patients (ESI Levels 5, 4, and some ESI Level 3) often require only a chair or recliner and could receive treatment in smaller, appropriately sized stations that include all necessary medical utilities. Presently, AHJs have no guidance for regulating these spaces as there is no provision for low-acuity care stations in the Guidelines; the draft 2022 language intended to remedy this will be discussed along with the split flow concept of ED traffic that it supports.

This webinar will enable viewers to:

  1. Discuss how emergency facility design can be used to address the operational and efficiency challenges facing emergency departments today and create safe, effective patient care spaces.
  2. Assess how the new design concept of low-acuity patient care stations can be used to deliver treatment without sacrificing patient safety, comfort, or privacy.
  3. Determine when installation of low-acuity patient care stations is an appropriate component in emergency facility design.
  4. Explain the flexibility that construction of low-acuity patient care stations can introduce to the ability of an emergency department to respond to an influx of patients, whether in an emergency, during high-use times, or in busy locations.

Accommodations for Care of Patients of Size

Presenters: Mary W. Matz, MSPH, CPE, CSPHP, Patient Care Ergonomic Solutions, and Joseph J. Strauss, AIA, ACHA, Cleveland Clinic

Description: Statistics show that more than three-quarters of Americans are overweight. Hospitals must be able to accommodate these individuals safely, protecting both the patients and the staff who care for them. Outpatient facilities may be able to limit the type of patients they serve. In either case, a decision should be made for each project as to whether accommodations for patients of size will be provided and, if so, what percentage of a facility will incorporate these elements. For the 2018 FGI Guidelines, the Health Guidelines Revision Committee made a concerted effort to provide guidance to health care organizations attempting to make these determinations. From considerations during planning to ensuring enough space is provided for these patients and the caregivers assisting them, both recommendations and specific requirements are provided.

This webinar will enable viewers to:

  1. Explain the importance of assessing the weight capacities of the population a facility will serve and the number of rooms that specifically can accommodate the largest patients that are needed.
  2. Discuss the advantages to patients of size when they can be adequately served in a health care facility.
  3. Discuss the importance to staff safety and retention of providing the equipment and space needed to safely serve patients of size.
  4. Compare the cost increases for construction, materials, equipment, and increased staffing to the savings from use of necessary patient-handling equipment and reduced staff and patient injuries and negative patient outcomes.

Sterile Processing Department: Design and HVAC Considerations

Presenters: Byron Burlingame, MS, RN, BSN, CNOR, Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, and Paula Wright, RN, BSN, CIC, Massachusetts General Hospital

Description: Sterile processing facility requirements have been significantly revised in the 2018 Guidelines for Design and Construction hospital and outpatient facility documents. Expanded guidance is provided for designing these critical areas to support and encourage clinical personnel to comply with current professional practice guidelines for cleaning, decontaminating, and sterilizing surgical instruments. The presenters will also discuss when a two-room sterile processing facility is required and when a single-room sterile processing facility is acceptable as well as ventilation requirements to support a dirty-to-clean workflow.

This webinar will enable viewers to:

  1. Discuss the perspective of infection preventionists on what architects and engineers need to know to provide safe, efficient environments for sterile processing.
  2. Explain the extent to which the perspective of designers and clinicians is addressed in AORN’s Recommended Practices for a Safe Environment of Care Part 2 and FGI’s Guidelines for Design and Construction of hospitals and outpatient facilities.
  3. Describe design engineers’ approach to initial planning for sterile processing environments in hospitals and outpatient surgery facilities.
  4. Explain the latest ventilation requirements for sterile processing and the Joint HVAC Task Force’s recommendations on compliance.

Breaking Bad: Resident-Centered Regulatory Improvements

Presenters: Jane Rohde, AIA, FIIDA, ASID, ACHA, CHID, LEED AP BD+C, GGA-EB, and Steve Lindsey, MSW, Garden Spot Village

Description: The long-term care industry in the United States has shifted toward provision of person-centered care in a more home-like environment. However, outdated and obsolete regulations, standards, and codes have been a barrier to creating built environments that support person-centered care. To respond to this deficiency, the minimum requirements in the Facility Guidelines Institute’s 2018 Guidelines for Design and Construction of Residential Health, Care, and Support Facilities have been updated to support and promote the provision of person-centered care. This webinar also reviews these updates, including more about the resident safety risk assessment, requirements for two new facility types included in this edition (substance abuse treatment centers and settings for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities), and clarification of HVAC requirements for all facility types.

This webinar will enable viewers to:

  1. Describe how long-term care facilities designed to support the delivery of person-centered care provide better resident and staff experiences.
  2. Explain how to implement functional programming and the resident safety risk assessment as a tool for designing long-term care facilities that provide a safe but homelike setting for residents.
  3. Use the performance-oriented Residential Guidelines requirements to navigate the barriers to creating person-centered environments in long-term care facilities.
  4. Explain how to draw care providers, residents, and families into the design process to achieve viable long-term care settings that support person-centered care.

Flexible Application of the Outpatient Guidelines

Presenters: John L. Williams, Washington State Department of Health, and Kirsten Waltz, AIA, ACHA, EDAC, LEED AP, Baystate Health

Description: The new Guidelines for Design and Construction of Outpatient Facilities was developed to meet the needs of the health care industry as new treatments are performed in new locations, traditional inpatient services move to outpatient settings, and new practices and facility types emerge. The idea is to create flexible facilities that can readily be reused for newer procedures, technologies, or purposes in the future. The presenters will discuss two approaches to applying the Outpatient Guidelines requirements—one for facility types detailed in the document and the other for facility types that have requirements scattered in multiple chapters. Several case studies are presented to demonstrate using the Guidelines to design different outpatient facility types.

This webinar will enable viewers to:

  1. Describe the importance of developing a functional program at project outset to ensure the finished project supports patient and staff safety and the safe, effective delivery of care.
  2. Explain how the Outpatient Guidelines requirements can be applied to an outpatient facility type not specifically included in the book to support design of safe, effective buildings as outpatient facilities continue to be moved out of hospitals.
  3. Discuss the importance of using a safety risk assessment to identify risks associated with services provided in an outpatient facility to ensure the completed facility can help mitigate those risks.
  4. Recognize when input from the authority having jurisdiction is needed to confirm code requirements for a new or unusual outpatient facility type.

The Functional Program and Safety Risk Assessment: How to Create and Apply Them

Presenters: Kenneth N. Cates, SASHE, Northstar Management Company; and Ellen Taylor, PhD, AIA, MBA, EDAC, The Center for Health Design

Description: Development of a functional program is an important first step in health and residential care design that allows a provider organization to assess its priorities and develop direction for the design team. A safety risk assessment is begun during project planning and should evolve throughout design, construction, and commissioning; this attention to the many aspects of safety in health and residential care facilities yields facilities that support safe patient care and encourage staff retention. This webinar reviews the process and uses for both a functional program and a safety risk assessment.

This webinar will enable viewers to:

  1. Discuss how development of a functional program and safety risk assessment can help organizational leaders and designers develop facilities that support patient and staff safety and the efficient delivery of care.
  2. Explain how development of a functional program can prevent project cost overruns and delays that can take resources away from patient care.
  3. Describe how developing a functional program can ensure the finished facility supports the care services to be provided in it.
  4. Discuss how incorporating a safety risk assessment in project planning and delivery can increase patient and staff safety in the finished facility.