ORS ANNUAL REPORT 2019

Message from the Director

ORS Director Since my arrival in February 2019, I continue to be amazed at the wide array of services the ORS offers to the NIH community. Wherever you go, ORS is there to serve you – the conference room around the corner, the cafeteria downstairs, the garage where you park your car, the poster hanging in the hallway, the safe lab practices you learned, the police car driving by, the shuttle bus taking you to your next meeting, even the badge hanging around your neck…we are everywhere, ready to help.

In 2019, we continued looking at new and innovative ways of providing our services more efficiently. By focusing on people, process, and performance, we aim to ensure ORS remains responsive to customer needs and strive to be good stewards of government resources…your resources. We opened a new fitness center in Building 53 on the main campus. We issued over 19,000 badges and reduced customer wait times. We delivered millions of pieces of mail. We saved millions of gallons of gasoline through our Transhare program. We inspected over 15,000 fire extinguishers. We administered almost 15,000 flu shots. We responded to almost 1,000 fire emergencies. We supported over 14,000 lectures, conferences and symposia with 35,000 hours of sign language interpretation. These services benefit everyone, no matter if you work in a lab or an office.

On the research side, our vet program processed almost 68,000 lab samples. Our library analyzed more than 110,000 publications for HeLa cells research. Our immigration specialists processed over 7,500 cases for international scientists in the NIH Visiting Program. Our radiation safety program packaged almost 7,400 radioactive materials. And, our occupational health and safety program identified 1,286 non-registered laboratories and worked to address safety and other issues in these non-registered labs; a figure I suspect will be dramatically higher in 2020! As you can see, I’m tremendously proud of the work we’ve done!

As I write this, we are in the midst of a pandemic, the likes of which NIH and our country has never experienced. I wish all of you good health and safety in this monumental year. Enjoy our 2019 Annual Report!

Colleen A. McGowan, MHA, FACHE
Director, Office of Research Services

Office of Research Services

ORS provides responsive and dependable support to the NIH research mission by planning, directing, and delivering scientific and regulatory activities, public safety, security, and services to enrich the NIH community.

ORS is an organization that seamlessly delivers on its mission, the first time and every time, exceeding expectations, and evolving with changing requirements. We are the standard by which similar service providers are measured.

Customer Focus

We exist to serve and protect our customers. We deliver equitable, reliable, and trustworthy products and services that are responsive to customer needs and respect the customer’s point of view.

Excellence

We are committed to providing quality services and products to aid NIH in achieving its mission. We demonstrate this commitment by our expertise, helpfulness, respect for the needs of customers, recognition of the value of cooperation and teamwork, and sense of responsibility toward our work.

INTEGRITY

We set high expectations and ethical standards for fiscal responsibility, personal performance, and in the provision of services, resources, and products.

COLLABORATION

We are committed to partnering with the NIH community to achieve a shared appreciation of mutual needs, values, expectations, constraints, roles/responsibilities, and outcomes; and to sustain the best research and work environments possible.

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