Case Study: Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Facility Management Solution Enables Vanderbilt University Medical Center to Maximize Space Utilization and Increase Productivity of Research Space by 55%

Industry: Education, Healthcare
Facilities: 9 million sq. ft.
FM: Systems Solutions: FM:Interact, FM:Survey and FM:Space
Client Since: 1993

“Having this level of data available to our leadership team has been a major benefit to our institution. We are able to analyze the information and improve the growth of each department, all while determining the building blocks for our future.”
Cyril Stewart
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Director of Facility Planning

Background
Vanderbilt University has built a strong reputation as a leader in medical education, research and patient care throughout the Southeast and the nation over the course of its 132 year history. At its heart, Vanderbilt is driven by discovery and the immediate incorporation of new knowledge into innovation in patient care and physician and nurse education.

The School of Medicine, originally part of the University of Nashville, was incorporated into Vanderbilt University in 1874 and awarded its first Vanderbilt medical degrees in 1875. The School of Nursing, founded in 1909, was one of the nation’s first nursing programs to incorporate its curriculum into a liberal arts degree.

The Medical School’s reputation for outstanding research is reflected in the amount of federal and private support it receives. Because of the creativity of the faculty, the School of Medicine ranks in the top 20 out of 121 medical schools in the receipt of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). From 1999 to 2003 Vanderbilt had a compound annual growth rate of 22.5% in NIH grant awards, the fastest growing program in the country. Five of the School’s departments were ranked in the top ten among comparable medical school departments in receipt of NIH funding in 2003. Support for competitive research grants from all external sources was almost $300 million in 2004.

Facilities and Property Overview
The VUMC facility is situated on the main campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Totaling 9 million square feet, the VUMC houses a variety of medical and administrative buildings including: 4 hospitals, numerous clinics and specialized treatment centers, and several parking garages.

Challenges
Prior to implementing the FM solution in 1993, VUMC relied on a mainframe-based system and manual paper system for space planning, personnel, and inventory management. The manual system limited data accessibility and was extremely inefficient.

Accurate and complete space inventory was particularly critical to the university’s medical center. Like all educational institutions which benefit from federal research grants, VUMC is required to comply with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-21 Guideline. Under the guideline, a portion of indirect facility and administrative costs may be recouped for space utilized by federally funded research projects. To better take advantage of this, the medical center needed to be able to consolidate common or joint projects and gather defendable space inventory data.

Because the rest of the university already used MIT Insight and AutoCAD for space management, the medical center needed to implement a compatible solution. After evaluating several competitive solutions, a third party consultant ultimately advised the medical center to select FM:Interact because it could be quickly configured to meet the VUMC’s specific requirements and easily integrated with the medical center’s existing technology.

Solution
In 1993, the VUMC implemented FM:Space. FM:Space helped the medical center consolidate data and streamline the data retrieval process. Installation was quick and easy. “An FM:Systems consultant came onsite to install the software and it was up and running by the end of the day,” said Dwight Woodard, Network Manager for Space Facilities Planning.

In 2001, the VUMC chose to expand the solution to the web, making space utilization data available to over 200 users through a solution comprised of the FM:Interact Workplace Management Suite and the FM:Survey module.

Through the use of resource surveys and automated output analysis, the institution is now able to gather more meaningful data and put it to use for improved space utilization and planning purposes. While not every user has the ability to enter data into the system via surveys, data is accessible to all within the system including the university’s Security, Plant Services, and Environmental Health and Safety teams.

Results
FM:Interact and FM:Survey have helped VUMC achieve more effective resource management throughout the 9 million square foot facility. Previously personnel location was only available through hardcopy records. According to Myra Agee, Space Management Coordinator, “now the data is easy to access online, print and sort 24 hours a day which significantly increases productivity.” Asset inventory and location is also being achieved. Assets above $3,000 are now reliably tracked through the software.

FM:Survey is in use as an information gathering and analysis tool as well. An annual survey of all 513 departments is conducted to track space utilization for the primary purpose of OMB A-21 cost proposals. Researchers and other employees directly enter survey data online through a series of forms and the software produces a report detailing how each space is being used (in percentage of research vs. non-research). Adds Paula Yarborough, Assistant Director of Finance, “this is a critical component to indirect cost recovery. This data is utilized to improve our ability to recover expenses related to government grants across the medical center.”

Stewart reports that the medical center has helped the VUMC facilities group improve the productivity of the existing space dramatically due to the accountability the FM:Systems solution provides. “We are now able to analyze the productivity of professors in the form of grant income,” said Stewart. “In 1998 the university set a goal to be one of the top ten research institutions in the country and we leveraged technology to achieve that goal.” To accomplish this, we needed to increase productivity within the existing space, which we have done, by over 55%. We feel this has been a direct result of managing our resources with the FM:Systems tools and providing leadership and departments feedback on space utilization.”