Building engineering team ensures better customer service

by Ellison S. Kelly Jr., Physical Plant Director

MUSC’s Physical Plant is implementing a new building engineer program with a goal of providing exceptional customer service.

“Open lines of communication with our customers are critical to providing exceptional customer service,” said Bob Gallager, vice president for Finance and Administration. “The Building Engineer Program is an important innovation to providing customer friendly access to the services provided by the Physical Plant.”

Zone 5 building engineer Mike Schultz discusses the day's schedule with University Housekeeping's Mary Frances Jameson within the Clinical Sciences Building.

Organized around a building engineer concept, the Physical Plant has divided the campus into seven manageable facilities or “zones.” A building engineer is assigned to each zone. As a problem arises, employees should contact the Physical Plant’s Service Call Desk at 792-4119. Each call is entered into the plant’s computer system giving zone building engineers the capability of monitoring all open trouble calls within each area.

If the problem is not satisfactorily resolved in a reasonable amount of time, employees are urged to call their building engineer directly. He is responsible for taking ownership of any Physical Plant-related problem and keeping employees informed.

In the Medical Center, employees may also contact Fred Miles, maintenance manager, regarding unresolved problems. Although some of MUSC's buildings date back to the early 1830’s, most problems can still be corrected fairly quickly. Other problems may require funding or even the establishment of a capital improvement project. In these cases, the building engineer can make recommendations based upon his review of the project.

Included in the program is the reorganization of the University Housekeeping Department. Over the last few years, the Housekeeping Department has downsized in preparation for the Columbia/HCA merger. The department is now filling 36 new positions which will bring the staffing level up to 115 employees. These employees have been divided into smaller groups and assigned to zones and a building engineer. The engineer should be knowledgeable of building conditions within his assigned zone. Housekeeping services in the Medical Center are provided by Environmental Services. UMA contracts these services at Rutledge Tower. The remaining five college zones are maintained by the University housekeepers.

The University Maintenance and the Preventative Maintenance Shops have been reorganized to provide faster response times when correcting maintenance problems. Mechanics are assigned to building engineers in each of six zones, excluding the Medical Center. The Hospital Maintenance Shop monitors maintenance problems for the Medical Center. In addition to responding to trouble calls, mechanics are actively inspecting buildings within their respective zones.

Meet your zone building engineer

ZONE 1: Arthur Ford 792-8298 Psychiatry Annex/Teaching Hospital/Eye Institute/Psychiatric Institute/Psychiatric Hospital/Childrens Hospital/Charleston Memorial/Charleston County Health/Charleston County Community, Charleston County Sub.

ZONE 2: Pete Rock, 792-9664 Quadrangle C Building/Quadrangle D Building/Quadrangle E Building/Quadrangle F Building/Baruch Auditorium/Research Building/Mechanical Room/Research Flamable Storage/Gas Cylinder Storage/Infectious Waste Loading/Sebring Aimar House/ 141 Ashley Ave./139 Ashley Ave. (Pink House)/36 Bennett Street/Family Medicine/5 Doughty Street/Hollings Cancer Ct. Prev./274 Calhoun Street/276 Calhoun Street (Kitchen)/272 Calhoun Street (Garage)/Old Paint Shed (F Bldg.)/3 Doughty Street/Parking Lot “B” Old/Parking Lot “G” Basic Science/Parking Lot “I” Family/Parking Lot “H” Barre/166 Ashley Ave./168 Ashley Ave./170 Ashley Ave./159 Rutledge Ave./198 Rutledge Ave. Unit #4/161 Rutledge Ave./30 Bee Street Parking Lot/61 Gadsen Street/156 Rutledge Ave./Parking Lot “F” Old/158 Rutledge Ave./160 Rutledge Ave./159.5 Rutledge Ave./160 Ashley Ave./St. Francis Parking Garage/St. Francis Annex/Hollings Cancer Center/Cannon Park Place/2 Allen Court/Bridgewater Cntr. Suite “A”/Dr. Edward’s House

ZONE 3: David Tennyson, 792-8784 Colcock Hall/Waring Library/Dental Annex/St. Luke Chapel/Wickcliffe House/176 Ashley Ave. (Guest House)/Administration Library Bldg./Basic Science Bldg/Chemical Storage Bldg./Radiation Storage Shed/Hazardous Waste Storage/1000 Morrison Dr. Warehouse/995 Morrison Dr./615 Wesley Dr./29 Leinbach Dr. Bldg. “B”/701 East Bay 4th Floor/26 Bee Street/Pre-Natal Wellness Center/1575 Savannah Highway/29 Lienbach Bldg. “C” Units/1 Poston Rd./1483 Tobias Gadsen Blvd.

ZONE 4: Tom Jaskunas, 953-6650 Strom Thurmond Bio-Medical

ZONE 5: Mike Schultz, 792-3627 College of Nursing/Alumni Memorial House/Parking Garage 1/Physical Plant Paint Shop/Clinical Science Bldg./101 Doughty St. (REDCROSS)/Student Wellness Center/Ft. Johnson “storage”/Ft. Johnson “Garage”/Marine Resources/333 Folly Road/Potter’s Field

ZONE 6: Steve Kincaid, 792-8785 Parking Garage II/Hagood Parking Lot/21 Eharhardt St./23 Eharhardt St./25 Eharhardt St./20 Ehrhardt St./28 Ehrhardt/17 Ehrhardt St. (Apartment Bldg.)/Parking Lot “A” Castle/Parking Lot “E” Bank Bldg./Parking Garage Harper Student/Parking Lot Harper Student/Parking Lot “D” Psychiatric Hospital/Harper Student Center/Parking H.O.T. 2.26/Public Safety Parking Lot/Parking Lots “M,N,O,P”/Parking Garage H.O.T./152 Cannon St. Apt. B/154 Cannon St./148 Cannon St. (2nd Floor)/52 Courtenay Dr./Physical Plant Ground Shop/College Health Professions/45 Bee St./Meducare TRLR “A”/Meducare TRLR “B”/Meducare Utility Shed 16x20/Meducare Utility Shed 10x14/Meducare TRLR 20 Ehrhardt/Meducare Utility Shed 12x12/Harborview Office Tower/Outpatient Clinics (Bank)/51 Bee St./49 Bee St./4750 Marriot Dr. Warehouse/4295 Arco Ln. Warehouse/ 4750 Arco Ln. Warehouse/4275 Arco Ln. Warehouse/4275-J Arco Ln./4480 Leeds Place West/5290 Rivers Ave./5900 Core Ave./9237 University Med. Plaza Dr.

ZONE 7: Tim Whitney, 876-0494 Rutledge Tower, Boiler Room

A few questions and answers

Q: Who pays for the work I am requesting?

Generally speaking, the Physical Plant is budgeted to maintain campus buildings on an “as is” basis. Maintenance of and repairs to departmental equipment, alterations and renovations are not funded by the Physical Plant. Individual college departments must fund their own renovation work and repairs to their departmental equipment. Capital improvements are generally funded from other sources. Alterations and renovations in the Medical Center are funded through the Department of Facilities Management during the annual budget process.

Q: Who do I call for minor maintenance items?

Minor trouble calls such as a burned out light, heating or A/C problems, broken window panes, damaged ceiling tiles, housekeeping, leaking faucets, elevator problems, roof leaks, etc. should be directed to the Physical Plant service call desk at 792-4119. Trained operators are on duty round-the-clock to take your call. They will enter your call into the computer system, forward your call to the appropriate building engineer or maintenance shop, and follow up on the trouble ticket when the work has been completed. The mechanic who responds to your call should bring a copy of the “trouble ticket” to you for your signature. Your signature will indicate to our building engineers and supervisors that the problem has been satisfactorily corrected.

Q: Who do I contact regarding construction contractor problems?

Contact the service call desk at 792-4119. The operators will forward your problem to the appropriate project engineer or contract inspector who should contact you in person or by telephone.

Q: If the Physical Plant services provided are not satisfactory, who should I contact?

Contact your building engineer. He will follow up on the problem with the appropriate Physical Plant supervisors. Q: How long should it take for someone to respond to my call? Our goal is to “respond” to your call within 24 hours. In many cases, repair parts must be ordered and it often takes several weeks to receive the needed parts to complete a repair. The mechanic should advise you if parts must be ordered. In most cases it is difficult to obtain meaningful parts delivery schedules from vendors. But we will give you our best estimated delivery date. We attempt to maintain a staffing level to provide an average 24 hour response time to calls. This means that on some days, our response time may be within three or four hours. However, on an extremely busy day, it may take longer than 24 hours for someone to respond.

Q: If I have other questions about Physical Plant operations, who should I call? Call your building engineer.

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