Decisions about facility maintenance and repair of senior care structures may have traditionally been left to facility managers but executives should be leading the way, said John zumBrunnen, owner and president of zumBrunnen, an Atlanta-based building consulting firm. 

According to a recent article on the Healthcare Finance News website, zumBrunnen made his comments during a webinar sponsored by Irving Levin Associates about the role of senior executives in building maintenance

Management tends to want to hire tradespeople for $70,000 or $80,000 a year to lead facilities management, said zumBrunnen. It might be appropriate instead to put a tradesperson in such a role in some circumstances.

While most executives do not get facilities training in business school, they do get training in strategy and strategy is what is needed when it comes to making decisions about facility maintenance and repair, the experts participating in the webinar said.

The challenge is rarely the technical aspects of facility management, said Mario Mckenzie, a partner with investment advisory firm CliftonLarsonAllen in the article.. It’s understanding how physical assets fit into the mission or goals of the organization and then creating long-term strategies that take into account the business needs of the organization and the physical asset needs.

Read the article.