Overview

The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) and Entech have been collaborating since 2015 when we were engaged to complete a Facility Condition Assessment (FCA) at the hospital campus. Since then, we have completed subsequent recurring FCA re-assessments and most recently, a Facility and Utility Condition Assessment (UCA) collectively addressing HUP’s 20+ buildings, ranging from almost 140 years to just over five years in age, as well as their central utilities systems.

HUP’s initial challenge was to gather and maintain unbiased, up-to-date data for the hospital’s buildings and systems to enable the facilities management team to budget for upcoming needs and track projects more efficiently, knowing that reactive maintenance is much more costly and risky than proactive maintenance. The outcome of our partnership and processes includes comprehensive data on HUP’s buildings and systems, full professional analyses and ongoing discussions, and updatable reporting via our FM Assistant facilities management software to guide and support HUP’s planning and funding requests.

HUP’s assessments and the resulting data took on another level of value beyond that of budgeting and scheduling support when Entech’s analyses determined that roughly half of HUP’s deferred maintenance was in the systems behind walls and above ceilings: piping and ducting, wiring, and other equipment.

HUP’s facilities management team had already known that these systems were aging and that a standard Facility Condition Index (FCI) benchmark value would not reflect the true metrics of the aged facilities, but Entech’s nonvisible systems analytics enabled HUP to quantify the deficiencies of these unseen and previously unaccounted-for systems and to create a plan of action accordingly.

HUP’s campus had been implementing a floor-by-floor renovation strategy to limit the amount of space under construction at any given time, thus maximizing space for patients. This approach had been successful over many years; however, after putting the nonvisible systems into context, it became apparent that this strategy could not effectively address larger mechanical and utility infrastructure maintenance needs. The hospital now had the data and interpretation needed to proactively establish long-term strategies to plan and budget for small and large deferred maintenance, capital renewal, and capital improvement needs, including those of hidden systemic mechanical, electrical, and plumbing issues, to keep the hospital operating and address the risk of unexpected shutdowns.

HUP'S facilities management team recognized that Penn Medicine’s other campuses would benefit from the same type of undertaking that they had initiated at HUP, so they introduced their peers to the Entech team. Seeing the value of what HUP had completed, the corporate team and Directors at each of the hospital campuses have collaborated with Entech to obtain the same third-party analysis and individualized insights for their facilities and utilities systems. The resulting data is standardized and tracked via customized reporting software across the entire hospital system.