healthcare vs new construction

Core and Shell might be applicable to ambulatory buildings or medical offices, as well as New Construction. For an inpatient hospital, any recent LEED registration should be using Healthcare. 

https://www.usgbc.org/articles/rating-system-selection-guidance​

Depending when the project was registered originally the requirement for healthcare might not have been mandatory yet, if you are looking at projects that started some time ago before healthcare was available or that were projects in development while it was optional.

There could be several reasons you are seeing this. The first could be that a recently completed project may have registered for LEED NC before there was a LEED HC to select. That team may have determined their design strategy was too far along to make the switch to HC. Secondly, the HC program is designed for the 24 hour operations and the demanding interior environments that are found in acute care. Other building types may not meet that threshold and those projects would register with NC. A medical office building would be more likely to do NC. All said, there are certain criteria that would place a project in HC. When you register the project, it will ask you a series of questions and then suggest the program to use. There are other guides available if you are trying to parse out which program.

I've seen more small healthcare projects register and use Commercial Interiors than I've seen healthcare building projects use Core and Shell in the healthcare market so I can't comment on the use of C&S in healthcare.

Hi Susan. The project that I am working at is an Outpatient Clinic, more like a clinic of medical services for the Veterans Affairs that serves office hours only. Therefore, New Construction seems more appropriate at first glance. Nonetheless, the Clinic is designed to have the HVAC running 24/7 as part of the Scope of Work. Can we register as New Construction? Please confirm our assumption because USGBC technical guidance is taking too long to answer. Thanks

Unless you have a surgical suite type spaces, I don't think MOB meets the healthcare requirement threshold. Why is the HVAC equipment running 24/7 and is it beyond the 24/7 type operations seen in offices? Most buildings have a set back operation on HVAC equipment.