Prospective Baseline Funding for DoD Medical Facility Inventory Ready Property Maintenance Costs
Abstract
This paper examines Real Property Maintenance (RPM) investment in the DoD medical facility inventory. It reports the findings of several relevant studies and examines the service's recent medical RPM funding histories. There has been a general lack of commitment to maintaining the public infrastructure. I contend that DoD medical RPM has also been underfunded in the past and is likely to remain underfunded in the future. Medical facility investment funding, including both RPM and new construction, is now the responsibility of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. Despite the centralized funding responsibility, there appears to be very little consensus as to what constitutes an appropriate medical RPM funding baseline. Decision makers must be provided with credible, persuasive data demonstrating not only the required investment but also the consequences of underfunding medical RPM. There are significant differences between the service's medical facility information systems that must be reconciled and standardized to improve investment decisions. In particular, the services must harmonize the determination of plant replacement values and backlogs of maintenance and repair. I examine these issues and conclude, among other things, that an interim annual medical RPM funding baseline should be established at 2 percent of the DoD medical plant replacement value (PRV). A higher RPM investment rate is probably warranted and should be determined by a more rigorous, contracted study of the DoD medical facility infrastructure.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA276813
Entities
People
- William C. Tweedie
Organizations
- Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy