The American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) and the Building Commissioning Association (BCxA) recently released “Health Care Facility Commissioning Handbook (Second Edition): Best Practices for Optimizing Building System Performance in New and Existing Health Care Facilities.”
In 2024, the BCxA and ASHE formalized a partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding. Since then, BCxA has contributed educational content to support hospital facility teams in advancing building performance and operations. The new handbook is part of this initiative.
By providing step-by-step instructions for implementing commissioning in a health care facility, this updated handbook aims to ensure every piece of equipment, system or structure utilized is offering owners optimal value and the most efficient and productive use of their space. The book outlines how to leverage commissioning to ensure contractors and facilities staff adhere to stated project requirements, current facility requirements and promised return on investment. By sharing best practices in commissioning (Cx), existing building commissioning (EBCx), building enclosures commissioning (BECx), and ongoing commissioning (OCx), this handbook serves as a complete how-to guide for optimizing health care facility performance and operations throughout the life of equipment and systems.
Commissioning maximizes the value, cost-effectiveness and efficiency of health care construction and renovation projects from predesign, design, preconstruction, construction, occupancy and operations, and during ongoing performance. Because of their 24-hour use and vulnerable population, many health care facilities require building system maintenance and operations procedures that are different than those for commercial buildings. This book takes these differences into account. By partnering with the Building Commissioning Association on the creation of this second edition of the book, the American Society for Health Care Engineering has ensured the insights are directly in line with commissioning industry best practices.
Table of Contents Overview:
- Predesign Phase
- Design Phase
- Construction Phase
- Occupancy and Operations Phase
- Existing Building Commissioning
- Ongoing Commissioning
- Building Enclosures Commissioning
BCxA volunteers collaborated with ASHE staff members to revise the latest handbook. GBA Vice President John Villani chaired a large team of BCxA volunteers. Among GBA staff, Marketing Director Julie Higginbotham served as the primary content editor; Associate Kevin Vander Klay contributed to updates to the Construction Phase chapter; and Program Manager Mildred Kwan coordinated numerous aspects of this significant project. Learn more about this valuable resource!
