Space Inventory

Since 1996, it has been the policy of the Office of Planning and Special Projects to conduct surveys of all space (buildings and rooms) on an annual basis, and maintain the University facilities database. Rooms are coded on their predominant usage and allocated to the department that uses the rooms. For our purposes, room ownership is not taken into account.

The facilities inventory reflects the status of the buildings and the current use of space within those buildings (room data) as defined by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (CHE). By September 30th of each year, the collected information is submitted to the Commission. The data that is gathered in the inventory is structured to provide a variety of reports for institutional use and, where appropriate, for inter-institutional, statewide, or national surveys. Currently, the building and room information in this database is also the basis for the Facilities and Administrative (F&A) Rate Study, Medicare/Medicaid reports, MUSC colleges' databases, the Medical University Hospital Authority's facilities, as well as serving as important links to the University Fixed Assets system and the University Physical Plant work order system. The facilities database is also used to generate reports and queries to support a variety of ad hoc inquiries in order to fulfill user requests.

Space Survey Procedures

The following are steps currently being taken in conducting annual space surveys by this office.

I. Prep Work

A. Generally in the month of August, a complete set of updated line drawings of all buildings will be ordered from the University Drafting Department (part of the Physical Plant). This set will be used on all surveying for the University and Medical University Hospital Authority throughout the entire survey year.

B. A survey timeframe is then estimated, usually beginning in October and lasting through the following April.

C. An updated listing is comprised of all departments to survey, with contact names and phone numbers.

D. A departmental room list and master room list by building are printed from the facilities database to be used as the official listings throughout the annual survey duration.

E. From the current listings of University and Medical University Hospital Authority square feet, a weekly square footage goal is derived for internal status reporting.

II. Surveying

A. All departmental liaisons are contacted to set up survey appointments. These liaisons must be knowledgeable enough to walk us through all departmental rooms, and explain each room's use. At this time, they are asked to verify the buildings they occupy space in, if they have acquired any new space since last year's survey, and if they have had any renovations performed since last year. Appointments are usually made on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays...leaving Mondays and Fridays for any office prep work and/or cleanup.

B. In most cases, two personnel from our office conduct these surveys, one updating the line drawings as the space is walked, and the other documenting the room uses. Some space may be surveyed by sitting around a conference table verifying the line drawings...usually if there have been no changes in the space from the previous year. During the physical walkthroughs, any changes to the line drawings are documented and new room numbers may be assigned when necessary. When surveying, many steps are taken in sensitive areas, so that patients and research are not disturbed. Due to the fact that the College of Medicine (COM) keeps its own facilities database for tracking faculty offices and various other information, to make the entire survey process easier for all COM departments, a representative from the College of Medicine's Dean's Office accompanies our office's personnel on COM appointments. This way, room data is collected at the same time.

III. Cleanup

A. Once the survey appointment is completed, new square footages are calculated for each department and logged into the internal weekly status reports.

B. Changes to the line drawings are copied and submitted to the University Drafting Department for needed corrections.

C. On some occasions, more than one department might claim a room. If this happens, any disputed rooms are addressed via email and/or telephone.

D. Changes to departmental space data are updated in the University facilities database.

E. Once the data entry is complete, verification reports are printed and sent to all departmental liaisons for their review and response. If necessary, revised reports are sent again. Though departments are generally only surveyed once a year by our office, if significant changes occur in their space throughout the course of the survey year, another walkthrough(s) may be conducted and verification report(s) sent.

F. After all departments have been surveyed, any rooms not claimed by a department are then investigated for proper coding and allocation.

G. All building element data is examined for accuracy and updated when necessary, before submitting to the Commission.