This CHFM cheat sheet strips the Certified Healthcare Facility Manager exam down to the facts examiners test most, organized to the five scored domains for fast recall. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free CHFM toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
CHFM exam at a glance
- Certifying body: AHA Certification Center (AHA-CC), developed with ASHE
- Questions: 110 multiple-choice (100 scored + 10 unscored pretest)
- Time: 2 hours (computer-based)
- Passing standard: Set by modified Angoff on the 100 scored items — no published fixed percentage
- Eligibility: Education plus associated healthcare experience (3 pathways)
What’s on the CHFM cheat sheet
- Compliance (~36 items) — the CMS Conditions of Participation, deemed-status accreditors, NFPA 101 and NFPA 99, the Statement of Conditions, ILSM, and the Environment of Care.
- Maintenance & Operations (~30 items) — PM/PdM/RCM strategy and the CMMS, ASHRAE 170 pressure relationships, essential electrical branches, NFPA 110 generator testing, and medical gas.
- Healthcare Project Management (~20 items) — the capital project lifecycle, delivery methods, critical path, the ICRA (Class I–IV), ILSM, and commissioning.
- Administration (~13 items) — the strategic facility plan, the safety committee and annual EC evaluations, and all-hazards emergency management driven by the HVA and EOP.
- Finance Management (~11 items) — capital budgeting with NPV and IRR, payback and ROI, straight-line depreciation, life-cycle cost analysis, and capital vs operating budgets.
How to use it in your final week
- Burn in the code chain: CMS requires it, a deemed-status accreditor surveys it, NFPA defines it, you document it — then lock NFPA 101 (Life Safety) vs NFPA 99 (systems) so you never confuse the two.
- Weight your final passes toward Compliance (~36 items) and Maintenance and Operations (~30 items) — two-thirds of the scored exam lives there, so that's where extra reps pay off most.
- Drill the hard numbers from the sheet: AII rooms negative, PE and OR rooms positive; 10-second emergency power restoration; generator monthly load test at 30% nameplate; smoke compartment cap 22,500 sq ft.
- Read the sheet once the morning of your exam, then take one short timed set (110 questions in 2 hours ≈ 65 seconds each) so your pacing feels automatic when the clock starts.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your CHFM practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
CHFM cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the CHFM cheat sheet downloads as a PDF with no sign-up and no payment. It sits alongside Career Employer's free CHFM toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards, so your whole review layer costs nothing.
It condenses the highest-yield facts from all five scored domains — Compliance, Maintenance and Operations, Healthcare Project Management, Administration, and Finance Management — with the codes, pressure relationships, testing intervals, and capital-budgeting rules examiners lean on most.
No — treat it as a fast recall layer, not your only prep. The exam rewards applied judgment across NFPA codes, building systems, and facility finance, so pair the sheet with full-length practice questions to build the reasoning the cheat sheet alone can't teach.
It's built from the current AHA Certification Center and ASHE content outline and the CMS-adopted 2012 editions of NFPA 101 and NFPA 99, and we re-check it against those official sources on a regular cycle.
Only 100 of the 110 items are scored, and the pass mark is set by a modified Angoff study rather than a published percentage. Because there's no fixed cut number to chase, aim to master every domain — especially Compliance and Maintenance and Operations, which together run about two-thirds of the exam.
References
- 1.American Hospital Association Certification Center. “Certified Healthcare Facility Manager (CHFM) Examination.” ahacertification.org, 2026. ↑
- 2.American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE). “Certified Healthcare Facility Manager (CHFM) Credential.” ashe.org, 2026. ↑
- 3.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “Life Safety Code & Health Care Facilities Code Requirements.” cms.gov, 2026. ↑
- 4.National Fire Protection Association. “NFPA 101: Life Safety Code.” nfpa.org, 2026. ↑
- 5.National Fire Protection Association. “NFPA 99: Health Care Facilities Code.” nfpa.org, 2026. ↑
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