Survey: Most Managers Classify Deferred Maintenance as Minor Concerntest

By Dave Lubach, Associate Editor

June 2015

The optimism managers report about successfully addressing their facilities’ deferred maintenance is visible in responses measuring their overall thoughts on the topic.

About 65 percent of respondents characterized the state of deferred maintenance in their facilities as either “minor” — 53 percent — or “not an issue” — 12 percent. A number of factors contribute to these responses.

“Maybe it’s a mindset for them,” Harvey says. “Maybe a lot of these groups didn’t have deferred maintenance during the recession years and don’t see it as a major issue and they’ve kept on top of it. I think some (of the responses) have to do with the size of the facility, as well.”

About 64 percent of respondents estimated the value of deferred maintenance in their facilities at less than $5 million, while another 14 percent of respondents estimated their values at $25 million or more.

Those figures need perspective, Harvey says. While $5 million seems like a modest total when compared to the billions of dollars needed for the National Park Service, that $5 million total could financially cripple a smaller institution.

Five million dollars “is a big number and kind of relative to the size of a facility,” Harvey says. “It’s a bit difficult because you don’t know what people are considering deferred maintenance versus operations or capital expenditures.

“Clients I work with put that stuff in different buckets, so it’s a little bit hard to quantify. For a million-square-foot hospital, $5 million in deferred maintenance is probably reasonable for a middle-of-the-road facility. The ($5 million or less) didn’t shock me, but it is a significant amount of money and quite a bit just to fix things that should have been taken care of over the years.”