Information is now available on the estimated cost of applying the 2014 versus the 2010 FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction Requirements to Hospitals and Outpatient Facilities.
The Facility Guidelines Institute published the 2014 FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals and Outpatient Facilities in March 2015. When states or other jurisdictions consider adopting new editions of codes, they receive anecdotal comments about large costs associated with updated requirements.
Many states require an economic impact analysis as part of the code adoption process. To quantify the economic impacts of the latest edition of the guidelines, FGI and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering commissioned several studies to examine all of the changes between editions of the guidelines document and assess the costs associated with those changes.
The research found that changes in the 2014 edition from the requirements in the 2010 FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities could lead to an increased construction cost of less than 2 percent for general hospitals. The research also found this increase could be significantly reduced or potentially eliminated through improvements in the 2014 edition text that: 1) clarify requirements and when they apply, 2) reduce the prescriptive nature of some requirements and 3) support design of facilities appropriate to the location, size and services provided by a particular institution.
For more details, visit fgiguidelines.org.
