2018 FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals

For the 2018 edition of the Guidelines for Design and Construction documents, the Facility Guidelines Institute developed three books: a volume for hospitals, a new volume for outpatient facilities, and the volume for residential health, care, and support facilities. Each provides basic information on planning, design, construction, and commissioning as well as minimum design requirements for particular facility types. The Guidelines requirements were updated to keep up with changes in health care delivery; to clarify and align requirements, where applicable, between all three Guidelines documents; and to allow flexibility in design to support development of facilities that will meet the needs of owners and their communities over the long term. Changes to the Hospital Guidelines clarify requirements and allow flexibility in some designs to support development of facilities that will be functional over the long term. Key changes affect requirements and recommendations for clinical telemedicine spaces; accommodations for patients of size; mobile/transportable units; sterile processing; and examination, procedure, operating, and imaging rooms. The document provides minimum design standards for general hospitals, freestanding emergency facilities, critical access hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, children's hospitals, and mobile/transportable medical units.