I was wondering if the USGBC has provided any guidance regarding calculating the FTE/Transients/Visitors, etc for a hospital. Should patients be partial FTEs or visitors? Does it depend on the kind of patient that they are (outpatient vs inpatient)? Do any of the hospital FTE, such as inpatients have to be residential FTE? Is there guidance in LEED for Healthcare? Our project is registered under LEEDv2.2.
Mara: perhaps you have a good idea from your hospital experience?
Thank you!
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Mara Baum
Partner, Architecture & SustainabilityDIALOG
674 thumbs up
February 3, 2010 - 3:07 pm
There is limited guidance from the USGBC on this matter. Inpatients are considered to be residents; outpatients are transients.
Calculating transients is often an exercise in estimation, and this is especially true for healthcare, because so many of the staff are mobile -- e.g. doctors on rounds who may pop into a building for just a few minutes or maintenance personnel who work in one building periodically but may have a permanent home in a different building. This type of occupant is usually a transient, although you should use common sense to determine your approach. You should work with your client to estimate these numbers, as well as outpatients and typical visitors per inpatient. They will probably hate this! Start with everything you know about the building, then and ask questions as specific as possible. For example, a desk in an office building often represents 1 FTE... but it could represent 3 in a hospital nurse station... even if the desk is used only two individuals, because shifts are often 12 hours.
I have not found the LEED for Healthcare draft (now quite old) to be useful on this topic, as it's something that is more likely to be addressed in a reference guide.