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). In the Fall 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/Property Control system, and the University Engineering & Facilities (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.

The campus building floor plans are also updated in our Office.  Upon request, floor plans may be tailored for constituents/customers for their space needs.

Survey Procedures

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

I. Prep Work

A. In the Fall, a complete set of updated line drawings of all buildings will be printed. 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 November and lasting through the following summer.

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. It is important that these liaisons 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 walk throughs,, 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 Associate Provost for Institutional Assessment keeps its own facilities database for tracking faculty offices and various other information, to make the entire survey process easier for all College departments, a representative from the Associate Provost's Office accompanies our office's personnel on College-related 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 updated within our Office.

C. On some occasions, more than one department might claim a room. If this happens, any disputed rooms are addressed and discrepancies are resolved with bot parities coming to an agreement..

D. Changes to departmental space data are updated in the MUSC facilities database.  Each room is assigned two sets of coded, based on descriptions from the Commission on Higher Education.  Actual room coding is by primary/predominant usage.

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 walk through(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 departmental allocation.

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