Even at the best of times in our economy, forensic facilities have had to fight for funding and justification for expansions. With the current economic downturn that will continue for the foreseeable future, how can forensic facilities continue to make necessary changes and find strategies for not only thriving but even growing or improving? This article will help to examine a number of ideas that your facility might use to succeed in this era of uncertainty.

Long Term Strategies
Remember to focus on long term strategies for your facility even in time of economic weakness. Quick fixes are often only short-term solutions. If executed properly, such fixes might assist your facility or group to limp along for days, weeks, months, or even years. Inevitably, such fixes will eventually fail and you may find yourself back to the place you started. Such quick fixes are often necessary, but long term planning in conjunction with the quick fixes will assure you and your facility that you are ready to jump when the opportunity presents itself to proceed with a real fix. Long term planning for the future of your facility may be a better use of the time, energy, and available funding you do have. The following examples outline two methods of long-term thinking and what effect it might have on your facility planning.

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Process Mapping
Process mapping is a strategy to understand the highest areas of throughput in your facility and utilize that knowledge to enhance the effectiveness of your lab. The activity of Process mapping provides an objective review of a current process as to the staff performing the process, the process path, the instruments used in the process line and the space needed to perform these activities. Process mapping describes a series of connected steps or actions that achieve an outcome. Organizations often use it to gain an understanding of their existing functional processes and to gain a clear sense of their needs. This enhances their ability to develop a deliberate course of action to improve the timeliness and quality of services. Process mapping might reveal areas for improvement that could be easily modified for little money and that would benefit the functionality turnaround time for your facility leading to more efficient usage of the funding you do have. The District of Columbia Consolidated Laboratory facility utilized Process mapping to identify opportunities to improve forensic case management.

Needs Assessment
Utilizing existing funds or grant money for a needs assessment is a good way to arm your facility for future funding possibilities. With the promise of a significant economic stimulus package by the incoming Federal administration, funding may become available in the coming months and years. Having a plan in place to be able to utilize funding quickly will place you higher in the priority structure of other groups and organizations who may be vying for the same pool of funds but who do not have a plan in place for utilizing such funding. The needs assessment process is an interactive process with your facility that documents a justification of need, types of spaces for the facility, how big the facility should be, and how much it will cost. The process begins with assessing the current facility then projecting need based on several methodologies; among them population and crime rate. A needs assessment will give you a roadmap of future construction and expansion and allow you the chance to jump when funding is available. Often a facility is funded based on the "best guess" of the management of facility commission. Needs assessments are particularly valuable to perform for a facility before funding becomes available as it is a reliable method of calculating projected costs to more effectively budget allocation requests.