LEED v4 Healthcare - outpatient facility

Sabrina - USGBC made a "refinement" in October 2013 to the Rating System Selection Guidance for healthcare. The e-mail I received stated: "The challenge: You told us that when trying to decide if LEED for Healthcare is the right rating system for your project, terms like “licensed” create more confusion than clarity. The solution: Since LEED for Healthcare was written with a prototypical medium to large hospital in mind, we are revising the definition to more closely match that prototype. The operational nature of these facilities is one of the main differences between a New Construction and a Healthcare project, so we wanted to call that out specifically in the rating system selection guidance. The guidance now states: This rating system is required for hospitals that operate twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and provide inpatient medical treatment, including acute and long-term care. The prior language stated: This rating system is required (beginning January 1, 2012) for buildings that serve individuals who seek medical treatment, including licensed and federal inpatient care facilities, licensed and federal outpatient care facilities, and licensed and federal long-term care facilities. These are considered LEED for Healthcare ‘designated’ uses. It is also appropriate for buildings with other kinds of medically-related uses, such as unlicensed outpatient facilities, medical, dental and veterinary offices and clinics, assisted living facilities and medical education & research centers are examples of ‘non-designated’ uses, and may use LEED for Healthcare at the project team’s discretion. Projects should use this guidance - http://www.usgbc.org/resources/rating-system-selection-guidance - (effective October 1, 2013). The same definition also applies for projects certifying under LEED v4." Based on this, you would use LEED BD+C: New Construction v4 not Healthcare.