Students conduct facility management
study at Houston’s Methodist hospital

Graduate students in a facilities management class at Texas A&M are working closely with administrators at Houston’s Methodist Hospital to produce a study of the hospital’s Dunn Tower.

During a Sept. 10 field trip to the hospital at Houston’s Texas Medical Center, John Cook, director of facilities management, gave students an overview of the hospital’s daily operations and a behind-the-scenes tour of its inner workings — boiler rooms, water chilling facilities, generators and much more.

Led by Sarel Lavy, assistant professor of construction science, the students will return to the hospital to collect additional data, and then return again on Dec. 1 to summarize their findings for hospital officials. The students’ final presentations will examine key performance indicators as well as provide a condition assessment and a strategic plan for the Dunn Tower.

On their first return trip, the class, divided into three teams of four students each, will gather data for their condition assessments. Each group will be assigned four floors, Lavy said, on which they will evaluate various building components, such as the interior floorings and ceilings, painting, plumbing and light fixtures, doors and windows.

The students will utilize a software program to analyze the data they collect along with other information pertinent to the building assessment, such as the amount and cost of energy consumed, the ratio of preventative building maintenance to unscheduled maintenance, and the number of uncompleted work orders.

From the data, Lavy said, the software will provide options for the cost and scheduling of major building renovations, which the students will use their final reports.

- Posted Oct. 6, 2009 -