Facility Guidelines Institute Establishes Committee to Develop Guidelines for Emergency Conditions, Taps RDG Principal to Serve
As a selected member of the committee, RDG Principal Mitch Elliott, AIA will help establish baseline planning and design standards for health and long-term care facilities.
The Facility Guidelines Institute is convening a special committee to assemble design guidance for facilities during emergency situations. Created in response to requests for guidance amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the committee will be responsible for drafting a white paper with guideline requirements and lessons learned from past local and national emergencies. RDG Principal and Senior Living Market Leader Mitch Elliott, AIA has been selected to serve on the committee and will help establish baseline planning and design standards for health and long-term care facilities. The subcommittee on which he is serving will focus on residential health, care and support facilities.
“It’s an honor to be asked to serve in this capacity, and I look forward to bringing perspective from my blended background in design, operations and development for senior living environments,” said Elliott. “I love that FGI’s pursuit of unique perspectives that will impact the planning and design of residential environments for older adults begins with those very residents in mind.”
Once created, FGI’s white paper will become the basis for a new guidelines standard on the design of facilities, which can be readily adapted during emergency conditions. The aim is to have the peer-reviewed white paper available by the end of summer 2020, with plans to release the supplemental guidelines standard in the 2022 Guidelines edition.
“In the midst of the pandemic, everyone is looking for answers on how to adapt the built environment to the crisis,” said FGI Board of Directors President, Ken Cates in the organization’s announcement. “FGI – working with our partner organizations – is committed to taking the lessons from this pandemic and applying them to a new Guidelines standard that will help health care organizations safely and efficiently navigate emergency or epidemic conditions that may arise in the future.”
FGI is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to developing guidance for the planning, design and construction of hospitals, outpatient facilities and residential health, care and support facilities. Partnering with numerous organizations, FGI develops the Guidelines and other practical, evidence-informed publications.