Description:

The draft 2026 Guidelines documents for hospitals, outpatient facilities, and residential care settings will be released for input from the public on July 1, 2024. This session will cover major changes in the draft, including a new outpatient chapter on short-term care facilities; design considerations for rural emergency hospitals; updated room size and clearances for rehab hospitals; revised nurse call, electrical, and med/gas tables; updated building systems text; a minimum percentage for single-occupancy rooms in most residential facility types; and flexibility to support design of small-scale residential facilities. Revisions to planning requirements for procedure and operating rooms will be discussed, including a tool under development to help owners determine needs for these two room types. The speakers will also discuss refinements for spaces intended for behavioral and mental health patients such as a new chapter on residential behavioral and mental health treatment facilities, and they'll review efforts to improve usability and enforceability of the documents. Questions and input from the audience will be encouraged. Presented in partnership with the Academy of Architecture for Health (AAH).

Hosted by the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health an AIA Knowledge Community.

Learning Objectives:

Speaker

Heather Livingston

Chief Executive Officer, Facility Guidelines Institute

Heather Livingston is the CEO of the Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI). Prior to becoming CEO, she was the chief operating officer for FGI and managing editor of the Guidelines for Design and Construction of hospitals, outpatient facilities, and residential health, care, and support facilities. Heather served as consulting editor for FGI from 2011 through 2016 and was a freelance writer from 2006 through 2015. Prior to that, she was an associate editor for the American Institute of Architects and director of the Business Week/Architectural Record awards program. Her work has appeared in This Old House, Cadalyst, Architectural Record, AIArchitect, and other design publications.

John Williams

Vice President of Content and Outreach, Facility Guidelines Institute

John Williams has 30 years of experience with healthcare design, planning and regulation.  John is the Vice President of content and outreach with the Facilities Guidelines Institute.  He is also the executive director of Facilities Construction and Licensing with the Washington State Department of Health and leads the review of licensed healthcare facilities to state licensing and federal certification requirements.  He chaired the International Code Council's Healthcare Committee for 12 years and is currently the Chair of the FGI Health Guidelines Revision Committee.  He also serves on various technical committees for NFPA. He is a frequent speaker on healthcare codes and standards.

Moderator

Gregg graduated Magna Cum Laude from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1984 and became a licensed architect in 1987.  From 1998 to 2008, Gregg was the Facility Architect for the St. Luke's Health System in Boise, Idaho where he worked on over 400 health care projects ranging from Medical Imaging Equipment Replacement projects to Master Planning Regional Healthcare Campuses.  Since then, he has been consulting for the local hospital systems and has served on the Board of the Idaho Society of Healthcare Engineers.