BICSI, the association supporting the information technology systems (ITS) industry with information, education and knowledge assessment, recently released its newest Standard, ANSI/BICSI 004-2012, Information Technology Systems Design and Implementation Best Practices for Healthcare Institutions and Facilities.

A healthcare facility’s main function is to save lives, and its infrastructure must be capable of supporting that mission. BICSI 004-2012 has been developed to provide guidance on issues specific to the healthcare environment. Today’s healthcare facility’s technology infrastructure supports an increasing amount of medical procedures and clinical processes, as well as business and enterprise operations. With industry initiatives such as electronic health records and enhanced security coupled with the convergence of clinical and information technology, the need to build, upgrade or replace the built electronic infrastructure has become a critical issue with healthcare. This Standard provides requirements and recommendations for best practices for the design and implementation of information technology systems infrastructure for healthcare institutions and facilities for meeting today and tomorrow’s needs.

Written for the wide variety of facilities including hospitals, outpatient clinics and skilled nursing facilities, BICSI 004-2012 covers not only common telecommunications and IT infrastructure concerns, but specific healthcare systems such as nurse call, interactive television/hospitality systems and connected medical imaging.

“BICSI 004-2012 is a great resource for ITS designers working on healthcare facilities. It is a continuation of BICSI’s history of leadership in documenting industry best practices and developing standards,” says Jerry Bowman, RCDD, NTS, RTPM, CISSP, CPP, CDCDP, BICSI president.

“It is the culmination of the efforts of many BICSI subject matter experts in a wide variety of disciplines related to healthcare.”