Get ready to measure for accurate square footage- BBI is now required

By A.J. Plunkett (aplunkett@decisionhealth.com)

Get ready, folks: BBI is back!

Well, the requirement for Basic Building Information never really left—although at one point it was on life support as part of several changes that CMS in 2016 told The Joint Commission (TJC) to make.

You might remember that those changes included eliminating the open Plan for Improvement (PFI) that allowed hospitals longer than the CMS-required 60 days to fix a Life Safety (LS) issue as long as the problem was self-identified, there was a plan to implement the repair or renovation, and the plan was approved by TJC.

The PFI along with the BBI made up the Statement of Conditions™ (SOC).

Not only is the BBI now mandatory, it’s a requirement with its own EP. And you might need your tape measure.
As of January 1, 2020, the new EP 7 says that hospitals must have “current basic building information (BBI) within the Statement of Conditions (SOC),” according to the prepublication standard online.