Get More Out of Your Healthcare FCA: Five Steps for Facilities Teams

Chances are you’d rather get your appendix removed than do another facility condition assessment (FCA).  

First, the facilities team has to assess building systems across multiple locations. Then, they have to gather asset details, maintenance records, and changes since the previous assessment. 

All that information is buried in PDFs, email threads, paper files, and disconnected systems. 

“When you’re doing an FCA manually,” says Cherie Chenoweth, senior director of facility programs at the District Advisory Group, “the data is all over the place! 

“When you’re doing an FCA manually, that data is all over the place!” 

“Pictures are often not labeled to the correct asset, and you have to decipher the story. Or they aren’t attached to assets or connected to locations, and the data is not structured. It took hours to re-enter the data into an FMP (facility management professional) format or project management system, for the FMP and dashboards to read correctly.” 

And a few years later, it has to be done all over again. 

But there’s a better way to do an FCA.  

When the data is structured and connected in a living report, it can support daily operations, capital planning, renovations, and the next assessment cycle. 

1. Stop thinking of your FCA as a one-time-use report. 

A facility condition assessment captures valuable information, but a static report preserves it for only that moment in time. 

For longer-term value, FCA findings should be connected to asset records that teams can use after the assessment is complete. 

When condition data can be connected to the assets, healthcare facilities teams can use it to support maintenance planning, renewal timing, capital planning, and future projects, instead of leaving it buried in a thumb drive or binder on a shelf. 

This is where an Asset Centric Project Management® (ACPM) approach is helpful. It connects FCA findings with the asset information created and updated during design, construction, and project handover—including serial numbers, warranties, locations, and photos. 

The result is structured data that is easier to find, easier to trust, and easier to use over time. 

In this case, healthcare facilities and operations teams get a stronger foundation for day-to-day decisions, long-range planning, and the next assessment cycle. 

2. Capture asset information during projects and handover. 

Project handover is often where FCAs fall apart. 

The project may be complete, but facilities and operations teams still need current asset data on day one. This is especially important for healthcare environments where facility performance affects patient care, staff workflows, compliance, operational continuity, and safety. 

When information is incomplete, your team may need to spend additional time rebuilding the same context before they can prioritize work or support funding decisions. 

On average, FCAs cost $0.25 to $0.35 per square foot, and the average healthcare facility is around 1 million square feet.  

Where do your FCAs usually land?  

If information is incomplete, you're paying twice for the same information: once during the project, and again when you have to rebuild it later. 

New construction, renovations, department upgrades, infrastructure replacements, and equipment-support projects already generate critical asset information in real time, including what was installed, where it is located, when it was placed into service, and which documentation belongs with it. 

Operations should have easy access to that information. Handover must support long-term operations and future assessments, not just project closeout. 

3. Use FCA cycles to validate facility data (not start from scratch). 

Facilities leaders are already balancing aging infrastructure, active renovation programs, regulatory requirements, and changing care delivery needs across a broad portfolio. They need current information to compare urgency, risk, cost, and operational impact. 

But if teams are still piecing together old reports and scattered records every few years, they’re spending time reconstructing the past instead of evaluating what needs attention now. 

When asset data is already in place, healthcare facilities teams spend less time rebuilding records and more time documenting what changed. 

That includes updating maintenance history, refreshing photos, validating asset details, and identifying new condition issues since the last FCA. 

A stronger approach is to treat each FCA cycle as an update to a living record. Because the FCA should not retell the story every few years. Rather, it should pick up where the last chapter left off. 

4. Use FCAs for planning and prioritization

Healthcare leaders are constantly fielding questions: Why did you prioritize this upgrade over this one? Did this replacement need to happen now? What exactly drove this decision? 

Those conversations are easier when FCA teams can provide context quickly. 

When FCA data is organized in a usable way, it can support capital planning, renewal timing, project sequencing, stakeholder communication, and funding discussions. 

That gives facilities, finance, procurement, and executive stakeholders a clearer view of the portfolio-level impact. 

It also supports stronger documentation and accountability in healthcare environments where compliance, audit readiness, and operational risk matter every day. 

5. Keep facility data usable between assessment cycles.

The value of facility data is not limited to the next assessment cycle. 

When asset records sit outside project delivery and day-to-day operations, teams lose visibility, miss details, and spend extra time tracking down information they should already have. 

In healthcare, that can lead to avoidable disruption, unclear documentation, downtime, and less confidence in long-range planning. 

For large healthcare facilities across regions, data is rarely consistent. Different hospitals, campuses, and external teams likely work in different systems. 

You need a configurable project management platform to gather and connect all that data. 

Kahua’s Continuous Facility Condition Assessments solution helps bring that information together. Owners can grant conditional access to outside teams, even if they are not Kahua users. Additionally, Kahua integrates with other PMIS, ERP, and documentation tools already in use. 

When data carries forward through project delivery, handover, and operations, facilities teams can work from current asset history instead of disconnected records. 

With this approach, teams can spend less time chasing information and more time making informed decisions about risks and priorities. 

Better FCA strategy supports better stewardship in healthcare. 

Facility condition assessments will always take time. But all that work can be far more valuable if the information lives beyond a static report: In a connected project management system.  

A stronger FCA approach means: 

This turns one-time assessment into a more continuous record of facility condition. 

Kahua’s Continuous Facility Condition Assessments solution supports that approach with real-time asset condition tracking, a centralized asset record, and analytics designed to help owners prioritize funding and plan capital investments more confidently.  

See how Kahua supports healthcare capital programs and FCA workflows.