Facility Guidelines Institute Emergency Conditions Committee Assistance

The Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI), publisher of the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Residential Health, Care, and Support Facilities, used by several States as the adopted code by their Department of Health, has convened a committee of health and residential care providers, architects, engineers, AHJs, and researchers to assemble design guidance that can assist senior living communities in weathering future pandemics, weather, wildfires, and other emergency situations. The committee is creating a white paper with draft Guidelines requirements and lessons learned from past local and national emergencies over the past several years such as COVID-19, Hurricane Katrina, and the wildfires in California. This white paper will become the basis for a new Guidelines standard, released with the 2022 edition, for designing senior living facilities that can withstand emergency events and adapt during emergency conditions.

FGI has asked for input from AHCA/NCAL members who are on the front line of emergency situations and are the experts in terms of identifying solutions. This is a valuable opportunity to help shape FGIs recommendations.

In order to be considered by FGI, please fill out this survey no later than 12p on Friday, July 17.

If you have any questions, please contact Katherine Preede at Kpreede@ncal.org

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* 1. Are there changes that you have made to your building(s) in response to emergency conditions that you feel worked well?

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* 2. Were there some changes that you made to your building(s)s that you did not feel were successful?

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* 3. Are there changes that you would like to make to your existing building(s) or when planning a new building that you feel would help you be more prepared for emergency conditions in the future?

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* 4. Do you believe there are aspects of the design of your building(s) that have hindered your response to an event?

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* 5. If you answered yes to any of the above questions, we would very much appreciate it if you would respond to us with the following information:

What was the emergency (e.g. hurricane, fire pandemic, active shooter, etc.)?

What was/were the design/building issues(s) that you were attempting to solve that required a change?

What was the design intervention that you identified or made in response to the issue(s)?

For what type of senior living environment was the intervention identified or made?

What were the priorities for implementing the intervention (e.g., maintaining resident safety, providing family access, managing staff workloads, etc.)?

Were there other professionals involved in managing the emergency who provided directives on how to make decisions about the building and the occupants (e.g., fire department, law enforcement, health department, etc.)?

Were you able to document any outcomes (positive or negative) as a result of the intervention? If so, would you share examples of these outcomes?

Did you base your intervention on published research or established guidelines? If so, please identify the source.

Were changes to your building(s) in response to an emergency made on an immediate basis by facilities team members relying on experience and best practices; were these changes subsequently reviewed by design or other professionals and possibly further altered to enhance performance/compliance?

Were changes to your building(s) in response to an emergency that were made on an immediate basis reviewed by an AHJ prior to use?

What has been your experience with having AHJ's review/approve changes that were made in response to an emergency after the fact?