The Facility Guidelines Institute
The Facility Guidelines Institute(FGI) is an all-volunteer NGO in the United States, dedicated to researching and publishing guidance for the planning, design and construction of effective healthcare buildings.Author: Walt Vernon,
(Member of IFHE's Executive Committee)
FGI (www.fgiguidelines.org) has published the Guidelines for the Design and Construction of Healthcare facilities for three decades. FGI updates the Guidelines every four years. The current, 2014 edition consists of one book for Residential Facilities, and a second for Hospital and Outpatient facilities. For 2018, the Guidelines will be in three books; Residential, Outpatient, and Hospitals. For 2018, FGI is working to establish much more rigorous evidentiary foundations for its requirements.
More important the FGI documents have historically been aimed at minimum requirements for the US market. Moving into the future, FGI is making two important shifts. First, FGI will begin to publish both minimum (or Fundamental) requirements, as well as Beyond Fundamental guidelines. The latter will provide building owners with a much broader palette of design solutions to help them do what’s right for their particular situation.
Second, FGI is considering the creation of one or more papers for international application, including at least one for application in low-resourced areas.
You can access the current versions of the Guidelines, including a Public Comment version now being considered (comments are due in December 2016) on the FGI website. If you are interested in working with the FGI to help develop internationally relevant Guidelines, please contact Mr. Walt Vernon, Chair, FGI Research and Development, at walterv@mazzetti.com.