REGULATORY REVIEW


space carved out of the vacant suite next door can make for an excellent operating room (OR). However, adding the additional OR will change required waiting room capacity as well as preop and recovery room capacity. In addi- tion, the displaced equipment and stor- age rooms need to be reconstructed elsewhere in the facility or the OR will not be permitted. So, what might seem simple is in fact very complex. Hav- ing the 2018 Guidelines as a reference guide can help walk you through such requirements and can save you and your physicians from spending unnec- essary time on concepts that may not be feasible or worse.


might be outpatient tomorrow. The guideline committee members wanted to ensure the 2018 guidelines would be flexible to allow for future innovation and be comprehensive regarding mini- mum design requirements.”


difference between


Early in our discussions about the outpatient


and


inpatient designs for operating rooms and support areas, we discovered that while there are a tremendous amount of similarities, there were equally that amount of differences. The range of outpatient facilities was from the very simple to the very complex, which caused at lot of discussion. Most felt it necessary to allow flexibility and to allow users to take the most pertinent portions from anywhere in the 2018 Guidelines and apply them to the proj- ect based on the needs of the facility. Additional focus was placed on sim- plifying areas that were previously difficult to understand, removing redundancies and aligning the docu- ments with other industry standards to avoid confusion and creating oppos- ing guidelines. All health facilities are required


to submit complete plans and specifi- cations for new buildings, additions, major building changes and conver-


sions of existing structures for use as a health facility to a governmental department for review and approval. ASC administrators or business office managers may be tasked with looking into governmental rules for a renova- tion or new build, which can be com- plicated and difficult to find. Having a copy of the 2018 Guidelines at your fingertips can help you answer initial questions by simply going to the appli- cable chapter and section you need to reference. For example, it may seem likely that a portion of an equipment room, storage space and additional


Track the Latest Regulatory and Legislative News for ASCs


Visit ASCA’s website every week to stay up to date on the latest government affairs news affecting the ASC industry. Every week, ASCA’s Government Affairs Update newsletter is posted online for ASCA members to read. The weekly newsletter tracks and analyzes the latest legislative and regulatory developments concerning ASCs.


www.ascassociation.org/ GovtAffairsUpdate


20 ASC FOCUS MARCH 2018 | www.ascfocus.org


There are no shortages of war stories circulating regarding design- ing a new facility or renovating an old facility and running across mis- takes that add up to into the hun- dreds of thousands of dollars. Cor- ridors created that were too narrow for the patient bed to swing into a patient room; using a portion of an equipment room for another purpose only to have Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) inspectors come in and close down an OR citing insufficient storage space; locating an MRI machine in a space that has poor vibration control or performing invasive procedures in rooms with inadequate air-handling exchanges to name a few. Fixing any of these mis- takes adds up both in time and cost. Be ahead of the construction curve


and take a look at the 2018 Guide- lines for Design and Construction of Outpatient Facilities. For more infor- mation, go to www.fgiguidelines.org/ revision-process/2018-revision-cycle/


Jennifer Butterfield, RN, CASC, is an ASCA Board member and the administrator of Lakes Surgery Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Write her at Jbutterfield@nshinc.com.


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