Our healthcare project will be a licensed facility by the state's deparment of public health. However, it is a community health center and not part of a hospital campus. The facility will more likely resemble an office building w/ some exam rooms and standard office hours than a hospital building with intensive equipment, 24hr operation, food services, and cooling towers. Another problem is that there are fewer credits available for the SS category in HC than NC, and this client is very interested in employing, or accounting for, most of the sustainable site credits.

My gut sense is to use the NC rating system and document some valuable HC prereqs or credits as ID credits under the NC system. Maybe I can also achieve a few other credits with an alternate compliance approach using the HC criteria.

Does using NC seem legitimate since our project does not match much of the HC building descriptions? Or do I need to use HC without exception? I can only find that one statement about licensed facilities needing to use the HC rating system without much detail on the subject. Let me know your take on this one. I can't steer the client down the NC road just to be rejected and possibly miss some HC prerequisites.

Thanks - Kathy