The next edition of the Facility Guidelines Institute’s Guidelines documents will be released in early 2022. Written as minimum standards, the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals; Guidelines for Design and Construction of Outpatient Facilities; and Guidelines for Design and Construction of Residential Health, Care, and Support Facilities are in final review by the 2022 Health Guidelines Revision Committee (HGRC), the 140-person volunteer body responsible for revising the documents.
Updates to the Guidelines were proposed by the public in 2019 and reflect changes in healthcare technology, practice and design. Drafts of the 2022 Guidelines documents were posted for public review and comment from July through September 2020. The HGRC is currently wrapping up its review and vote on comments, and those approved will be incorporated into the 2022 edition.
The Guidelines for Design and Construction of Residential Health, Care, and Support Facilities includes design standards for nursing homes, hospice facilities, assisted living facilities, substance abuse treatment facilities, settings for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, independent living settings, adult day care facilities, wellness centers, and outpatient rehabilitation facilities. The major changes to the Residential Guidelines include:
- Following requests from regulators, an interim amendment to the 2018 Residential Guidelines was released in 2020. Based on that amendment, resident rooms in nursing homes now require a minimum CFA of 120 square feet in single-occupancy rooms and 108 square feet per resident in double-occupancy rooms. Likewise, resident rooms for individuals of size require a minimum CFA of 200 square feet when an overhead lift is provided and 219 square feet when mobile lifts are used.
- A dialysis treatment area been added to the nursing home chapter to support facilities that provide training for home care dialysis.
- Patient rooms in hospice facilities are required to have a minimum CFA of 153 square feet to accommodate a family support zone of 33 square feet.
- Support for telemedicine services has been considerably enhanced in the Residential Guidelines, and sections on technology, equipment and teledata rooms were updated to reflect current practices.
Concurrent with the work of the HGRC, FGI convened a 130-person Emergency Conditions Committee in April 2020. This all-volunteer body of subject matter experts was tasked with writing a comprehensive white paper and new Guidelines requirements to help healthcare organizations plan for a breadth of emergency events. The Emergency Conditions white paper, “Guidance for Designing Health and Residential Care Facilities that Respond and Adapt to Emergency Conditions,” is at long last published and available for free download on the FGI homepage (www.fgiguidelines.org). The white paper addresses design and operational considerations for emergencies that are local (e.g., floods, train derailments, mass shooter incidents), regional (e.g., tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes) and international (e.g., pandemics and other public health emergencies of international concern) in scale. The white paper offers guidance on an array of design and operational considerations for health and residential care facilities.
The draft Emergency Conditions Guidelines will be open for public comment until June 30, 2021. Comments that are approved by the Emergency Conditions Committee will be incorporated into the Guidelines for Emergency Conditions in Health and Residential Care Facilities and published as a supplement to the 2022 Guidelines for Design and Construction documents.
Quinn deMenna, AIA is a Senior Project Manager at Spiezle Architectural Group, Inc., FGI HGRC member and Co-Chair of the AIA Design for Aging Knowledge Community