All facility managers know that times are good when the phone doesn’t ring all that frequently.
“Facilities tend to always be on a rescue mission and dealing with the unexpected,” says Steve Smith, 2023 Facility Champion and the director of facilities at William P Clements Jr. University Hospital at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “When we are doing our best our name is not being called as our systems are operating as designed. When you do not get the call, then you know you are doing a great job.”
Smith is a U.S. Army veteran who was a combat engineer who led teams for eight years before eventually finding his way to UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2008, where he ran controls projects and became involved in designing and commissioning a state-of-the-art acute care hospital before becoming day-to-day operations manager at the Clements hospital. His role in the opening of the new hospital, a 1.2 million square foot facility that opened in 2014, remains a highlight of Smith’s career.
“It was such a success that planning began within a year of opening to expand the acute-care hospital to 752 beds (from 460),” he says. “From the design in 2016 to the construction in 2017 to 2020, nothing was more exciting and challenging than running a maintenance team, while being able to have input into a major expansion to a fully occupied building.”
Keeping the service calls to a minimum are a goal of every facility manager, but are especially critical in the healthcare industry, where a system failure can create life-or-death situations for patients and medical staff. It is in the situations where things go wrong that Smith can fall back on his military experience to be prepared for all situations.
“When things do not work out right, there is a contingency plan in place to ensure safety of all patients and staff,” Smith says. “Successful outcomes are generated by putting staff in the right place, with clear direction, the proper training, and necessary resources to accomplish their job.”
Like many facility managers, Smith has started navigating the challenging waters of the future of FM, which includes net-zero buildings and decarbonization. It is the next step, he says, that his facility must take as a leader in the healthcare industry.
“In the ever-progressing changing environment to save money and create decarbonized facilities, we are putting into action plans to be a better steward of our resources,” he says. “The healthcare environment needs to reduce greenhouse gases and their carbon footprint without sacrificing any environmental conditions needed for a healthy healing environment. Embracing the use of newer technology and integrated systems we can help all facilities accomplish these challenging goals for years to come.”
Dave Lubach is executive editor for the facility market.
