Medical Construction & Design

JAN-FEB 2016

Medical Construction & Design (MCD) is the industry's leading source for news and information and reaches all disciplines involved in the healthcare construction and design process.

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14 Medical Construction & Design | JA N UA RY/ F EBRUA RY 2016 | MCDM AG.COM Industry news, awards, etc. St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, Florida, won the 2015 Excellence in Health Care Facility Management Award for its project aimed at reducing common area slips, trips and falls. The award is presented by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering. The award recognizes an individual or facility management department that has implemented new or innovative programs or processes to optimize the physical environ- ment and improve patient care. The facility management team at St. Joseph's Hospital, which is part of the BayCare Health System, set out to reduce falls in common areas of the hospital, such as hallways, waiting rooms, cafés, sidewalks and parking lots. The team studied slip and fall incident reports and implemented 12 safety initiatives based on their findings. After the safety mea- sures were implemented, the hospital recorded a 16 percent reduction in falls from the previous year. Visit ashe.org/ about/awards. RECOGNITION St. Joseph's Wins Facility Management Award for Reducing Falls IN BRIEF New resources were posted on how to comply with medical gas storage, safety hazard and airfl ow requirements from The Joint Commission . The new resources are part of the Focus on Compli- ance project, which provides tools to address common fi ndings from The Joint Commission. For details, visit ashe.org. Southland Industries recently launched a wholly owned subsid- iary called Envise . As a building management systems integrator, Envise will focus on analytics, building management systems and equipment lifecycle management to optimize building performance. The American Society for Health- care Engineering has redesigned ashe.org so that it is easier to navigate and more mobile-friendly. The new site uses easier-to-read text and a responsive design to make it simple to access information from smartphones. The website was also reorganized to make it easier for members to fi nd needed information. Anchor Health Properties and Brinkman Management & Develop- ment have recently merged under the name of Anchor Health Prop- erties . The merged company's project portfolio includes 600,000 square feet in active healthcare development and 1.5 million square feet in managed properties. Visit anchorhealthproperties.com. Children's Health Fund and Stan- ford Children's Health recently unveiled a mobile medical unit. The new "doctor's offi ce on wheels" will bring high-tech mobile medical care to underserved adolescents from San Francisco to San Jose, California. Each exam room is equipped with fl at-screen monitors and tablets loaded with interactive technology and health education resources. Research Reveals Estimated Cost of Applying 2014 vs. 2010 FGI Guidelines COST COMPARISON FOR MORE DETAILS, VISIT FGIGUIDELINES.ORG. Information is available on the estimated cost of applying the 2014 versus the 2010 FGI Guidelines for designing and constructing 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 signifi cantly 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. Illustration: Wissanu99/DollarPhotoClub.com

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