Facility management value to patient care demonstrated through benchmarking

Facility managers must provide CEOs with the true cost of care and more detailed information about the assets they manage, as major contributors to the bottom line, according to a blog on the FaciltyCare website.

"Too often the cost of facility management is not truly recognized as a value to the patient care cost model. Times are changing. I see my colleagues reinventing their computerized maintenance management systems and building automation systems to bring a new perspective to the C-suite regarding those systems’ influence on Medicare’s value-based purchasing guidelines, all in terms the C-suite understands," wrote blogger Todd Wilkening.

Reports from the International Facilities Management Association’s Healthcare Institute (IFMA-HCI) are helping facility managers to retool themselves, demonstrating their value and contributions to accountable care organizations through the value of patient care, the blog said.

These reports show highest facility operating costs occur for maintaining buildings at 16 to 20 years. The annual maintenance expense is noted as 22 percent higher than when new. The average hospital size had a mean of 564,801 square feet. With that in mind, the $0.92 of added expense due to age is equivalent to $25,980,846 in lost revenue at a 2-percent operating margin, Wilkening said.

"It is believed that as a building ages, maintenance costs increase. However, one begins to wonder if the best long-term business practice is to allow facilities to decline or to maintain them more proactively as assets that contribute to the success of the business in a sustainable long-term fashion," he wrote.

Read the article.