CHFM study plan

Map every task area within Operations and Maintenance (maintenance strategies, work-order/CMMS workflow, utility systems, water management, HVAC, electrical, medical gas, elevators, grounds) onto a personal checklist and self-rate confidence 1-5 for each.

Define and contrast preventive, predictive, corrective, and reactive maintenance, and state the trigger that initiates each in a facility program.

Trace how a work request becomes a completed, documented, closed work order, naming the record created at each step.

Walk a familiar facility (or recall one) and record 15 observable O&M conditions, linking each to the specific program element that governs it.

Cross-map at least 20 O&M practices to the authority that requires them (CMS Conditions of Participation, Joint Commission standards, NFPA, EPA, OSHA, state and local codes).

Explain how a utility system risk assessment (criticality, redundancy, failure-mode consequence) sets maintenance frequency and spares strategy.

Compute MTBF, MTTR, and percentage of preventive maintenance completed from a sample work-order dataset, then state what each result implies for reliability.

Answer 40 practice items spanning Domains 2 and 4 and log every miss with the underlying concept rather than the question text.

Build a citation table for the standards most heavily tested, including NFPA 101, NFPA 99, NFPA 25, NFPA 72, NFPA 110, CMS Conditions of Participation, and Joint Commission environment-of-care and life-safety standards.

Differentiate survey and enforcement types (CMS survey with deemed status through accreditation, accreditation survey cycle, state licensure inspection) and identify who enforces each.

Outline the plan-of-correction workflow from citation through root cause, corrective action, and evidence of sustained compliance.

Solve 30 scenario items on documentation requirements, equivalency or waiver requests, and interim life safety measures.

Sequence a healthcare construction project from programming through design, construction, commissioning, and closeout, naming the facility manager's specific deliverable at each stage.

Apply a pre-construction risk assessment to a mock unit renovation, covering infection control, utility interruption, life safety, noise and vibration, and staging.

Read a floor plan and verify egress paths, exit access, and rated construction against stated occupancy assumptions.

Distinguish interim life safety measures required during construction from measures required in normal operations.

Assemble a commissioning and closeout checklist covering O&M manuals, as-built drawings, staff training, punch list resolution, warranty start dates, and life safety drawing updates.

Apply the defend-in-place concept by explaining compartmentation, smoke compartments, and how renovation work alters them.

Calculate occupant load and required egress capacity for two worked examples and verify each answer against the governing method.

List the conditions that trigger interim life safety measures and at least six common interim measures with the situation each addresses.

Classify 10 real facility expenditures as capital or operating and state the rule used for each classification.

Compute simple payback, return on investment, and a life-cycle cost comparison for two competing equipment replacement options.

Explain depreciation, cost of capital, and how a facility business case is presented to executive leadership for funding approval.

Interpret a departmental budget-versus-actual variance report and identify the three largest drivers with a proposed response for each.

Build a hazard vulnerability analysis scoring matrix and apply it to eight hazards, ranking them by risk.

Map the four emergency management phases (mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery) to concrete facility actions and to elements of the emergency operations plan.

Describe how the facility manager participates in a root cause analysis or failure mode analysis after a safety event.

Answer 30 scenario items on risk management, interim life safety, and emergency management, then rewrite each miss as a rule statement.

Complete two full-length timed practice exams under test-day conditions and record scores by domain.

Re-drill every missed item from weeks 1 through 7 grouped by concept, not by question, until each concept is explained aloud without notes.

Recite from memory the one-page summary for each of the five domains, including the standards and formulas most likely to be tested.

Finalize exam-day logistics: appointment time, identification, testing location or remote setup, and a written pacing plan per domain.