Dear Academy Community,
Have you heard about the FGI? How they started? How they function today? How our experience helps support the guidelines development?
We have all heard about the FGI Guidelines, we reference them, codes and jurisdictions having authority reference them, and owners reference them. The Guidelines are part of our lives in healthcare facility planning and design. Which means we know them by heart, we know what works and what can be improved, we know we can influence the next edition.
The Facility Guidelines Institute was founded in 1998 to stabilize the Guidelines revision process, placing responsibility for updating the document in the hands of a body dedicated to that purpose. The founders were a committee of the Academy (Burgun, Sprague, Cohen, Rockstroh, and Erickson) who had been involved in developing the Guidelines for a number of years and wanted to ensure its future development using a consensus process with public input at regular intervals. Their mission to “establish and promote consensus-based guidelines and publications, advised by research, to advance quality health care.”
The FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction is developed from input from Guidelines users, and by the work of the Health Guidelines Revision Committee (HGRC) and FGI topic groups.
Members of the HGRC, along with representatives from several federal agencies and 13 state AHJs include:
- Ambulatory Surgery Center Association
- American College of Emergency Physicians
- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
- American Health Care Association National Center for Assisted Living
- American Society for Health Care Engineering
- American Society of Anesthesiologists
- Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
- ASHRAE
- Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses
- International Association of Healthcare Safety and Security
- LeadingAge
- Nursing Institute of Healthcare Design
- Residential Assisted Living National Association
- Center for Health Design
- Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments
- Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH)
Once the HGRC is formed proposals to change the requirements in the Guidelines are welcomed from all users of the documents—health care planners, designers, constructors, clinicians, caregivers, health and residential care administrators, and authorities having jurisdiction—as well as interested members of the public.
The Academy has official representation on the Health Guidelines Revision Committee and its Steering Committee. The topic groups formed by FGI at the beginning of a revision cycle also offer opportunities for AAH members, some topic groups are still forming now for the 2022 review cycle—information can be found here. We can also submit proposals to change or clarify any Guideline requirements we have found problematic in the field. The deadline for these proposals is June 30, 2019.
Once the proposal period has closed, the HGRC reviews and votes on all submitted proposals. Their decisions are implemented in the draft of the next edition of the Guidelines. The draft is put out for another round of public review and comment. The HGRC then votes on all the comments, resulting in the manuscripts for the next edition of the Guidelines. You can find additional information on the revision process.
For updates on the revision process sign up for the FGI quarterly newsletter using the link at the top of FGI website homepage. You can also take advantage of FGI webinars by members of the HGRC.