Case Study: National Institutes of Health achieves proactive, data-driven facility planning with VFA

A Dynamic Approach to Facility Management & Planning at the National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health needed a better way to manage and prioritize facility investments across nearly 17 million square feet of mission-critical space. Its paper-based, as-needed assessment process created outdated reports, inconsistent standards, and no easy way to compare building conditions or estimate repair costs, making budgeting and prioritization difficult. NIH turned to VFA and its VFA.facility software plus assessment services to move to a more proactive facility management approach.

VFA implemented a consistent, web-based condition assessment methodology across the portfolio and centralized all findings in VFA.facility. Working with NIH, VFA helped create a project scoring system and a defensible capital plan that tied facility needs directly to budgeting. NIH now reassesses one-third of its portfolio each year, keeps data current, and uses historical Facility Condition Indices to track progress in reducing deferred maintenance.

National Institutes of Health

Ed Bain

Chief, Business Support Branch, National Institutes of Health