Make room for new construction resources

Make room for new construction resourcesIt's time to clear some space on your bookshelf — or your electronic reader — for some new resources in the field of health care facility design and construction. The Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) is releasing 2014 editions of two important standards for designing and building health care facilities. Another new book, co-authored by an ASHE member, focuses on construction management of health care facility projects.

The 2014 editions of the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals and Outpatient Facilities and the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Residential Health, Care, and Support Facilities are now available to order. The documents are being shipped this month to those who have preordered, and discounts are available for those who buy both books.

Both sets of guidelines are used by dozens of states and several federal agencies to regulate health care facility design and construction. This year, residential guidelines were put into a separate book to better accommodate the unique needs of residential care facilities, which are shifting to settings with a more homelike atmosphere.

The 2014 hospital and outpatient Guidelines document includes several changes from the 2010 edition. One of the biggest changes is the addition of a safety risk-assessment process intended to mitigate hazards in the health care built environment. The safety risk assessment covers falls, medication errors, infections and security breaches. The document also includes new chapters on children's hospitals, critical access hospitals and dental facilities.

For the 2014 edition, the Health Guidelines Revision Committee, the multidisciplinary committee that considers proposed changes to the Guidelines, debated whether the functional program should be included as a minimum requirement, removed from the document or shifted to an appendix. The committee opted to keep the functional program in the main text as an important step in planning a health care facility, but streamlined the requirements and moved substantial material to the appendix.

Another helpful resource on health care projects is a new book, Construction Management of Healthcare Projects, written by ASHE member Thomas Gormley, LEED AP, CHC, and Sanjiv Gokhale, PE, FASCE, two experts in health care construction.

The book provides in-depth information on how to safely and successfully deliver high-quality health care construction projects on time and within budget. The book includes best practices and industry trends related to the unique construction requirements of health care facilities, including building components, specialized functions, codes and regulations. The new book also includes detailed case studies that show how to apply the concepts in real-world situations.

The FGI Guidelines documents and the Construction Management of Healthcare Projects book can be purchased at www.ASHEstore.com.

By Deanna Martin, senior communications specialist for ASHE.

Important monographs available

ASHE makes important resources available to members. Following are two recently released monographs that can be accessed by ASHE members as free PDFs at www.ashe.org/resources/
management_monographs.

• Life Safety Code Comparison. The 2012 edition of the National Fire Protection Association's Life Safety Code offers new design and compliance options for health care facilities that didn't exist in previous editions. This ASHE monograph provides an exhaustive list of the changes in the new edition and a detailed comparison with the 2000 and 2009 editions.

• Room Ventilation and Airborne Disease. This ASHE monograph examines research on how room ventilation affects airborne-disease transmission in health care facilities. Farhad Memarzadeh, Ph.D., P.E., examines findings that consider the effects of air changes per hour on infection transmission.

ASHE Blog offers free subscription service

The ASHE Blog keeps members up to date on developments and offers a free subscription service so that members can get posts delivered directly to their email inboxes. To receive this service, visit www.ashe.org/blog, sign in and click "Subscribe" in the black bar near the top of the page.