About ACHA
The American College of Healthcare Architects (ACHA) certifies healthcare architects through rigorous standards, aiming to improve healthcare environments via the expertise of its certificate holders. ACHA offers board certification to architects specializing in healthcare in the U.S. and countries with NCARB reciprocal licensure. Eligible licensed architects may work in traditional firms or roles such as health systems, authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs), government agencies, client representation, development, or consulting.
The intent of the certification process is to provide representation to the public that a Board-Certified healthcare architect has successfully completed a approved educational program and an evaluation of relevant experience, including an examination process designed to assess the knowledge and skills requisite to the performance of high-quality service in the practice of healthcare architecture.
The certification profess is rigorous and overseen by an independent testing agency, to establish a professionally sound, legally defensible standard by which people can identify themselves as healthcare architects.
ACHA Certified healthcare architects annually pledge their commitment to certification through a recertification process which includes continuing education.
ACHA offers the only specialty board certification that is recognized by The American Institute of Architects (AIA).
ACHA certification is recognized by The American Society of Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) of the American Hospital Association (AHA).
Mission
To distinguish healthcare architects through certification, experience, and rigorous standards
Vision
Transforming healthcare through better built environments
Healthcare organizations are under ever increasing pressures to do more, better, faster, with fewer human and material resources. Therefore, every effort should be made to design healthcare settings that minimize waste, and the time and effort required to accomplish the highest level of care possible in operation and during the project delivery process.
We recognize that patient safety, health outcomes and population health are critical issues for healthcare organizations. Therefore, every effort should be made to create safe and therapeutic environments for patients, staff, and all occupants of the environments we design. This also includes optimizing the health and wellbeing of the communities in which our environments are placed and served by our client organizations. Finally, it demands protecting and optimizing the health of global ecosystems through green, sustainable, regenerative, and ultimately carbon reducing design, construction and operating strategies and practices.
This includes addressing diverse and unique needs of patients, care partners, clinicians, staff and the communities and populations they serve. How the built environment of care is designed can impact patient comfort and satisfaction and care partner engagement which in turn can improve health outcomes and attract informed and insured patients. We also recognize that the design of the built environment can affect staff satisfaction, burnout, and retention. Finally, the planning and design of healthcare settings can influence community support and engagement so healthcare facilities should be designed to be good neighbors and meet community needs beyond delivering healthcare.
We recognize that how healthcare is delivered will change at an ever-increasing rate over the extended lifespan of facilities we design. Healthcare facilities must be designed to accommodate these evolutionary changes as well as respond nimbly to sudden unpredictable and potentially catastrophic events. Therefore, healthcare environments must be designed for flexibility, adaptability, expandability, and resilience.
We recognize that delivering better healthcare environments benefits through input from the broadest possible range of sources and stakeholders, representing diverse skills, knowledge, insights, experiences, and perspectives. We believe that the best available evidence should be applied through the lens of an experienced and certified architectural practitioner. We also recognize that we need more rigorous and comprehensive research at the intersection of human health, healthcare and the design of the built environment. Further, the methods and findings of this research area need to be reported as well as translated more easily, quickly and appropriately for implementing an effective design decision making process.
Health and healthcare environments must be designed with knowledge of and in compliance with the best practices, guidelines, standards, and building codes established as an industry standard of care for all healthcare settings. Certified healthcare architects must advocate to protect the health, safety, and welfare of all building occupants within the unique dynamics of healthcare.
What We Stand For:
The American College of Healthcare Architects is a certification organization with the mission “to distinguish healthcare architects through certification, experience and rigorous standards.” Our vision is “transforming healthcare through better built environments.”
We believe that “better” built environments must address and support a series of fundamental issues and forces impacting human health and the delivery of healthcare. Therefore, we believe that:
History of ACHA
The American College of Healthcare Architects [ACHA] was founded in 1999-2000 "with the intent to improve the quality of design for healthcare for patients and their families by offering specialty certification” for licensed architects who demonstrated expertise in the practice of healthcare architecture. The College was created by a founding and visionary board of regents under the leadership of its initial President Kirk Hamilton. 155 healthcare architects with significant documented healthcare practice experience were initially certified prior to the first certification exam. An independent psychometric testing firm created the first exam based on material generated in the first year of the college by a cohort of founders who averaged over 26 years of healthcare experience. These founders also created a rigorous certification process that involves a portfolio and reference review in addition to passing the exam. The certification exam was initially administered in 2001 and the first exam taking cohort were certified after passing the exam and the certification review process. After years of work, the College executed an MOU with the American Institute of Architects in 2008 to formally recognize ACHA Certification as the first and only area of specialty architectural practice. ACHA Certification was also endorsed by the American Society of Healthcare Engineers in 2019. As the College passes its 25th anniversary, it now represents a growing body of over 600 certified healthcare architects in large and small firms throughout North America.
Value Propositions
Value to Clients: Board Certification assures the public that a healthcare architect has completed accredited education, relevant experience, and passed a rigorous, independently administered exam. This process sets a professional, legally sound standard for identifying certified healthcare architects. To maintain certification, ACHA architects must recertify annually with ongoing education.
Value to Certificants: ACHA certification demonstrates your dedication to the highest healthcare design standards. Certificate holders serve as valuable sources of knowledge, and connecting with them offers expanded networking and professional development opportunities.
Attaining ACHA certification offers certificants access to valuable networking, educational, and marketplace opportunities. ACHA emphasises collegiality, mentorship, and the exchange of knowledge, all of which contribute to advancing best practices in healthcare environment design.
