Skip to main content
American Hospital Association.  Advancing Health in America American Hospital Association.  Advancing Health in America
ashe site header logo
  • Store
  • Join
  • Sponsors
  • My Learning
  • About
    • ASHE Overview
    • ASHE Directory
    • ASHE Membership
    • Affiliated Chapters
    • Governance
    • Corporate Sponsors
    • Promotional Opportunities
  • Advocacy
    • ASHE Advocacy
    • Compliance Tools
    • Industry Organizations
    • Alerts/Briefs
    • Advocacy Liaisons
  • Education & Events
    • Program Offerings
    • Calendar
    • Webinars
    • Lunch & Learn Series
    • ASHE Academy
    • ASHE Education Showcases
    • ASHE Annual Conference
    • PDC Summit & Exhibition
    • Access the Learning Center
    • On Demand Learning
    • Energy University
    • Speak at an ASHE Conference
    • Ilse B. Almanza Scholarship Fund
    • Certifications
    • Continuing Education Information
    • Host a Program
    • ASHE Preferred Education Provider
    • Engineering Week
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Member
    • Apply to Volunteer
    • Get Certified
    • Submit a Publication Idea
    • Speak at an ASHE Conference
    • Ilse B. Almanza Scholarship Fund
    • Awards and Recognition Programs
  • News & Resources
    • COVID-19 Resources
    • Converting Alternate Care Sites
    • Resource Library
    • HFM Magazine
    • Just Ask ASHE
    • WMTS Information
    • Press Releases
    • Management Monographs
    • ASHE Pages Buyer's Guide
    • ASHE Career Center
    • My ASHE Online Community
    • Chapter Leader Resources
    • Energy to Care
    • The Architecture for Health Showcase
  • Member Corner
    • Join/Renew
    • Member Directory
    • Voices of ASHE
    • President's Corner
    • Compliance Tools
    • ASHE Career Center
    • HFM Magazine
    • HFM Magazine Quiz
    • Management Monographs
    • On Demand Learning
    • Just Ask ASHE
    • ZOOM Virtual Backgrounds
    • My ASHE Online Community
    • Your Account

COVID-19 crisis impacts facility management staffing and compensation

ASHE reports COVID-19-related staffing impacts through the COVID-19 Response Tactics Sharing survey project

The COVID-19 crisis halted daily health care facility projects and operations, and forced facilities management professionals to focus on emergency management and patient surge planning. Compounding this urgency was the fact that disease experts struggled to understand the virus, but linked transmission risk to surfaces and airflow patterns, particularly in health care environments. Facilities managers around the country sought out as much information as they could from experts in both the engineering and medical fields to help them configure appropriate clinical care spaces, determine their need for alternate care sites, and to quickly design, build, and make these sites ready for patients. 

The ASHE website and My ASHE discussion boards saw a significant flurry of activity, where members exchanged information to help each other. Consequently, ASHE realized how valuable an accurate and complete catalog of COVID-19 crisis activity related to health facilities management (as well as potential costs) could be to members now and even after the pandemic. The information in this catalog would allow members to compare their COVID-19 response with others, share lessons learned and plan for future potential outbreaks. 

ASHE’s COVID-19 Response Tactics Sharing (CRTS) survey and project gathers the data needed to create this catalog, synthesizes these data into actionable learnings and quickly shares it back with the ASHE community. The initial survey was launched in June 2020, and remained open for four weeks. One early CRTS analysis focused on the crisis’ impact on health facilities management staffing and employee earnings. The survey asked facilities managers to report staffing changes (layoffs, furloughs, reassignments, pay reductions) for their entire department, noting which roles were most impacted by each activity. The table below outlines these staff changes and reports the number of staff that were still impacted at the time of data collection.  

ASHE Staffing Table


It is clear that the COVID-19 crisis has influenced many aspects of peoples’ lives, including their daily activities and economic stability. The required “pause” on elective surgeries created a wave of staffing reductions that affected most roles in the hospital, including facilities. 

The CRTS continues to collect facilities management-specific data during the pandemic to explore this issue, as well as other factors important to facilities management emergency preparedness and recovery. Understanding the true economic impact on our field is just one piece of the puzzle of which the CRTS will explore and provide reporting. 

Facilities management professionals can participate in the CRTS by clicking here. In addition, facilities management professionals that have already taken the survey, but wish to update their responses because they have experienced new surge activity can contact ASHE’s researcher at ashe.research@aha.org. 

This report is the first in a series of updates on the CRTS project. A special report — the COVID-19 Response Tactics Sharing document — will be available for member review in the coming weeks. 

Lisa Walt, Ph.D. is a senior research analyst at American Society for Health Care Engineering. 

Additional Resources

COVID-19 resources for health care facilities

This timely ASHE resource page covering emergency preparedness, infection control and more assists health care facilities managers in their efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by keeping the physical environment safe.

View COVID-19 Resources
Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19)
ashe site logo
  • American Society for Health Care Engineering
    • 155 N. Wacker Dr., Ste.400, Chicago, IL 60606
    • Phone: 312-422-3800
    • Email: ashe@aha.org
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Media Kit/Sponsorship
  • Contact Us
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

  • © 2021 by the American Hospital Association. All rights reserved.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
Noncommercial use of original content on www.aha.org is granted to AHA Institutional Members, their employees and State, Regional and Metro Hospital Associations unless otherwise indicated. AHA does not claim ownership of any content, including content incorporated by permission into AHA produced materials, created by any third party and cannot grant permission to use, distribute or otherwise reproduce such third party content. To request permission to reproduce AHA content, please click here.