By Healthcare Facilities Today

The Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) is scheduled to release the 2014 Guidelines this quarter. As CEO of FGI and chairman of its Health Guidelines Revision Committee, Doug Erickson analyzes the process and results in an article in the January issue of Health Facilities Management magazine.

The Q& A includes:

Q: What are a couple of the significant changes in the 2014 Guidelines?

A: The two striking changes in the hospital and outpatient care Guidelines are the significant advancements in providing tools for caregivers to provide positive patient outcomes by tying the physical environment to patient and health care worker safety through safety risk assessments, and getting rid of the old methodology of classifying operating and procedure rooms to levels of anesthesia.

Once again, the Health Guidelines Revision Committee (HGRC) undertook a difficult task of throwing decades-old language out and replacing it with requirements that reflect the direction health care has headed over the past decade.

Q: What are the most significant challenges in keeping health care facility standards current and relevant?

A: Believe it or not, it is not the standards-writing process that is holding progress back, it is the lack of adoption of the most recent codes and standards by federal and state authorities that is the overwhelming problem.

As most people know, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is referencing the 2000 edition of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Life Safety Code, which is based on 15-year-old thinking and technology.

In my opinion, this one old reference is costing health care between $5 billion and $15 billion a year. In an era in which reimbursement is diminishing and health care costs are skyrocketing, this is totally unacceptable behavior.

Read the article: