Academy Health: Advancing Research, Policy and Practice

Description: Academy Health is a leading national organization serving the fields of health services and policy research and the professionals who produce and use this important work. Together with our members, we offer programs and services that support the development and use of rigorous, relevant and timely evidence to increase the quality, accessibility, and value of health care, to reduce disparities, and to improve health. A trusted broker of information, AcademyHealth brings stakeholders together to address the current and future needs of an evolving health system, inform health policy, and translate evidence into action.

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Center for Health Design

Description: The Center for Health Design (CHD) was formed in 1993 by a small cadre of pioneering healthcare and design professionals committed to advancing a singular idea – that design could be used to improve patient outcomes in healthcare environments. Our passion proved contagious. Today, we’re a far-reaching, international community leading the effort to improve the quality of healthcare facilities worldwide, as well as environments for healthy aging. 

Description: The Center for Health Design offers many learning tools and resources to help you design and build hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices, wellness centers, and residential care facilities with improved satisfaction rates, increased safety, fewer medical errors, better medical outcomes and a healthier bottom line.

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Center for Health Design: Knowledge Repository 

Description: The Knowledge Repository, a centerpiece for all healthcare design research, papers, articles and references, allowing users to search publications by types of publications, terms, design category, outcome category, environmental condition category or setting, and provides the number of references available for each defined category.  Users can also conduct searches by entering a key word in the search box.  The results appear with the most recent references at the top of the page.

Easy-to-use key point summaries for select references are available and allow users the ability to easily and quickly review important concepts found in each of these articles, such as findings and design implications. Additional key point summaries provided by Research Design Connections will continue to be added.

Designed as a living library, this repository provides a one-stop, complete source of healthcare EBD research, and as such will continue to grow and develop as healthcare design evolves. For researchers, it increases the visibility, usage and impact of their work.  For users, it provides a complete source of healthcare design research. 

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Facility Guidelines Institute

Description: The Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI), a not-for-profit corporation, was founded in 1998 to provide continuity in the facility guidelines revision process, function as a contractual coordinating entity, and enhance the content and format of Guidelines and publications that encourage and improve their application and use. Click the link to the right to read a letter from the FGI president discussing recent FGI activities.

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Facility Guidelines Institute’s (FGI) Guidelines for Design and Construction - 2022

Description: The FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction documents are the most widely recognized standard for planning, designing, and constructing health and residential care facilities. The Guidelines documents consolidate minimum program, space, risk assessment, infection prevention, architectural detail, surface, built-in furnishing, and building system requirements in one convenient place. States and federal agencies use the Guidelines to regulate new construction and major renovations of health and residential care facilities.

Facility types covered in the Hospital Guidelines include general hospitals, children’s hospitals, critical access and other small hospitals, behavioral and mental health hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, and mobile/transportable medical units.

Facility types covered in the Outpatient Guidelines include general and specialty medical services facilities, outpatient imaging facilities, birth centers, urgent care centers, infusion centers, outpatient surgery facilities, freestanding emergency care facilities, endoscopy facilities, renal dialysis centers, outpatient behavioral and mental health centers, outpatient rehabilitation facilities, mobile/transportable medical units, and dental facilities.

Facility types covered in the Residential Guidelines include nursing homes, hospice facilities, assisted living settings, independent living settings, long-term residential substance abuse treatment facilities, settings for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, adult day care and adult day health care facilities, wellness centers, and outpatient rehabilitation therapy facilities.

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Health Guidelines Revision Committee (HGRC)

Description: The Health Guidelines Revision Committee (HGRC) is a select multi-disciplinary consensus body of more than 120 clinicians, administrators, architects, engineers, and representatives from authorities having jurisdiction that is convened to revise and update the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities. As a group, HGRC members are experts on the many issues addressed in the Guidelines. The participation of individuals with such a wide range of expertise helps make the document one that truly reflects a variety of clinical, administrative, engineering, and design concerns that is indeed based on interdisciplinary consensus. This consensus is developed through a public process that includes three meetings of the full HGRC generally held over a two-year period.

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The Joint Commission (TJC)

Description: An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 20,500 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.

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The Joint Commission (TJC): State-by-State Recognition of Accrediting Bodies

Description: The Joint Commission’s various accreditation/certification programs are recognized and relied on by many states in the states’ quality oversight activities. Recognition and reliance refers to the acceptance of, requirement for, or other reference to the use of Joint Commission accreditation, in whole or in part, by one or more governmental agencies in exercising regulatory authority. Recognition and reliance may include use of accreditation for licensing, certification or contracting purposes by various state agencies. 

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U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs; Office of Construction and Facilities Management; Technical Information Library 

Description: The Office of Construction & Facilities Management (CFM) is responsible for the planning, design, and construction of all major construction projects greater than $10 million.  In addition, CFM acquires real property for use by VA elements through the purchase of land and buildings, as well as long-term lease acquisitions.  Through the construction and real property programs, CFM delivers to Veterans, high quality buildings, additions, large scale renovations, and structural enhancements.  CFM also manages facility sustainability, seismic corrections, physical security, and historic preservation of VA’s facilities.

The Technical Information Library (TIL) is The Source for VA's electronic Design and Construction Information. The TIL contains nearly 2,500 documents covering all aspects of VA facility development, from planning through construction to occupancy. The TIL document collection represents the institutional knowledge resulting from the more than 50 continuous years of the VA construction program.

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A Guide to Healthcare Facility Dress Rehearsal Simulation Planning: Simplifying the Complex

Yellow Brick Consulting, Inc, 2021

Description: This twelve-chapter guide provides the reader a step-by-step framework to plan and coordinate Dress Rehearsal events for any size project. The Dress Rehearsal concept was conceived in 2009 when members of the Yellow Brick Consulting, Inc. team were tasked with activating and licensing a new, 100-bed hospital in 90 days. Drawing upon industry experience, the team developed an interdisciplinary simulation program using scenarios to validate new workflow processes and the new space’s functionality.

Over the years, Yellow Brick has refined the Dress Rehearsal program (also known as Day in the Life), incorporating best practices and lessons learned from facilitating more than 300 events conducted across North America. In 2019, the team set a goal to formalize the approach by publishing a guide that healthcare leaders could leverage as they prepare to activate their new spaces. The guide includes samples and tools developed by the Yellow Brick team to support Dress Rehearsal event coordination.

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A Visual Reference to Evidence-Based Design

Center for Health Design

Description: With the patient experience and patient safety as the central theme of every chapter, industry icon Jain Malkin covers everything you need to know about hospital-acquired infections: the characteristics of pathogens, how infections are spread, regulatory requirements, the controversy about antimicrobials, and the implications for design professionals.

In this must-have resource you'll find:

1. Extensive research combined with dozens of case studies

2. The best practices available today in patient-centered projects

3. More than 300 full-color annotated project photographs and architectural plans

4. A step-by-step guide to creating a research agenda

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Design for Pediatric & Neonatal Critical Care

Mardelle McCuskey Shepley, 2014

Description: Design for Pediatric and Neonatal Critical Care provides an overview of the design and research issues associated with the development of environments for pediatric and neonatal intensive care. This is the first and only book dedicated to this topic and was created to support individuals interested in developing and studying critical care environments for children and their families.

This book is intended to help designers and researchers enhance healing environments for young patients in critical care settings and provide information in support of the families and staff who provide care for these children and infants.

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Design Your World

Maria VanDeman and Doug Shapiro, 2023

Description: Design Your World follows the story of Serena, a child who wishes to make more choices in her life but struggles to find elements she can control. Yet, as she watches her grandmother design and care for her home, Serena begins to see the unique freedom of creating her own spaces. With newfound inspiration, she sets out to design her very own room, a space where she has choice.

Join Serena as she goes on a journey of self-discovery as she learns the power of design. This heartwarming children's book is a reminder that we all have the ability to design our own lives, and that even the smallest choices can make a big difference.

A portion of the proceeds from each book sale directly supports IIDA's Design Your World program, which provides early exposure to commercial interior design and architecture.

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Evidence Based Design, A Process for Research & Writing

DAK Kopec, E. Sinclair & Bruce Matthes, 2012

Description: Evidence-Based Design: A Process for Research and Writing serves as a guide to help students conceptualize and formulate their design ideas and then to evaluate and test those ideas through a succinct, organized process. The result is the culmination of a comprehensive document that articulates a design concept and justifies key design attributes. Step-by-step, students are guided through the process of writing a robust, research-based document geared towards empirical design research. From developing a critical position to performing a thorough review of the literature to providing an overview of common research methods, this text is a perfect guide for students producing an evidence-based thesis or dissertation.

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Evidence-based Design for Healthcare Facilities 1st Edition

Cynthia S. Mccullough, 2009

Description: In this book, nurse and healthcare design consultant Cynthia McCullough gives readers the necessary knowledge, tools, and strategies to incorporate evidence-based design concepts into any design project - from the largest new healthcare facility construction to the smallest departmental renovation.

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Healing Spaces, The Science of Place and Well-Being

Esther M. Sternberg, 2009

Description: Sternberg immerses us in the discoveries that have revealed a complicated working relationship between the senses, the emotions, and the immune system. First among these is the story of the researcher who, in the 1980s, found that hospital patients with a view of nature healed faster than those without. How could a pleasant view speed healing? The author pursues this question through a series of places and situations that explore the neurobiology of the senses. The book shows how a Disney theme park or a Frank Gehry concert hall, a labyrinth or a garden can trigger or reduce stress, induce anxiety or instill peace.

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Health Facility Evaluation for Design Practitioners

Mardelle McCuskey Shepley, 2011

Description: Health Facility Evaluation for Design Practitioners is the definitive resource for understanding, planning, conducting, and sharing pre- and post-occupancy evaluations of health facilities. The appendices include a sample literature review, template for a PFE survey, and glossary of research terms.

Defines terms associated with the facility evaluation process, summarizes the approaches of some of the most prolific experts in the field, and sketches the evolution of building evaluation by offering examples and precedents.

This takes readers step by step through the evaluation process: how to conduct and summarize a literature review; develop an evaluation hypothesis; develop and describe a methodology; work with an IRB; analyze and summarize results; and interpret, discuss, and disseminate results. A chapter on obtaining funding is also included.

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Informing Design

Joan Dickinson & John Marsden, 2009

Description: Informing Design suggests a pedagogy in which design decision making is informed by more than speculative hunches, preferences, and intuition. In this collection of contributed chapters, leaders in both design practice and education share their expertise in such specialty areas as corporate, retail, and learning environments; healthcare; and hospitality. Introductory chapters teach students to distinguish among information gathering, programming, and research; apply the findings of others; and conduct their own investigations. Other chapters illustrate how informed design decisions were applied to various building types.

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Nurses as Leaders in Healthcare Design; A Resources for Nurses and Inter-professional Partners

Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design, 2015

Description: In 2015, Herman Miller Healthcare partnered with the Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design (NIHD) to produce a book focused on nurses and other clinicians roles in planning and design of healthcare environments to optimize patient, provider and organizational outcomes. This book builds upon the success of Herman Miller's recent publication in collaboration with D. Kirk Hamilton entitled Rigor and Research in Healthcare Design: A Decade of Advocacy.

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Simplifying the Complex: A Guide to Transition and Activation Planning for Healthcare Construction Projects

Yellow Brick Consulting, Inc, 2020

Description: Simplifying the Complex is an easy-to-use guide that provides readers with the fundamentals of the transition, activation, and operational planning process and is essential for anyone involved in activating a new healthcare space. Meant to provide a straightforward planning roadmap, this guide tackles the high-risk and problem-prone strategic initiative of activating healthcare construction projects. Yellow Brick Consulting, Inc. utilized project management experience from healthcare projects of varying sizes, scopes and complexities to share best practices and to provide insight as to how to avoid common pitfalls through strategic planning. This resource provides the framework required to establish a consistent process throughout the Transition and Activation Planning process, including project kickoff, budget development, building readiness, and people readiness. Each chapter guides the reader through the stages of the planning process and provides the tools necessary for implementing a successful project.

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SpaceMed - Hospital and Healthcare Facility Planning Guidelines

Cynthia Hayward, 2022 (Fourth Edition)

Description: Written by Cynthia Hayward, the SpaceMed Guide provides state-of-the-art planning methodologies, industry benchmarks, and rules-of-thumb to help healthcare architects, planners, and providers develop the functional program and space requirements before beginning the design process and applying the FGI Guidelines. With the step-by-step workbook and space planning templates in Microsoft® Excel, you can quickly determine the types, numbers, and sizes of spaces for any healthcare project based on input from the intended occupants.

The SpaceMed Guide was first published in 2004, followed by the second edition in 2006 and the third edition in 2015. The fourth edition (2022) of the SpaceMed Guide has undergone a significant update. The workbook and space planning templates have been reorganized, and some facility components have been realigned to reflect changing technology and medical practice.

The SpaceMed Guide (fourth edition) is available in a digital format.

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