Robert T. Yokl, President/CEO, SVAH Solutions
The Secret to High-Performance Hospital Value Analysis Teams
All winning teams are a combination of attitudes, talent, and traits matched with the right leadership to give them the vision, values, goals, and a “can do” attitude; a team that takes responsibility for its actions and pride in its accomplishments. Over the last 30+ years, we have documented and observed the ideal competencies or what outstanding hospital value analysis team leaders and team members do more often, in more situations, with better results. To identify the individuals in your healthcare organization who also exhibit these same winning competencies, we would suggest that you employ a 360-Degree Feedback System in assessing your value analysis team leader and team member candidates’ qualifications prior to full membership on your value analysis teams.
The 360-Degree Feedback System Is The Solution
The first step in your selection process for new or replacement team leaders and team members is to have your Value Analysis Steering Committee (I hope you have one) appoint a team leader, administrative representative (CFO, COO, or VPs), facilitator, recorder, and team members for each of your value analysis teams as shown in figure 1.
Figure 1: Value Analysis Surgical Team Membership
|
TEAM LEADER |
Martha Jones
|
*Director of Laboratories
|
| ADMINISTRATIVE REPRESENTATIVE | Ted Justine
|
*Vice President of Professional Services
|
| FACILITATOR | Mary Cummings
|
*Staff Facilitator
|
| RECORDER | Pat Ford
|
*Administrative Secretary
|
| Team Member | Cindy Wright | Operating Room Manager |
| Team Member | Ben Pierson | OR Head Nurse |
| Team Member | Charley Thompson | Anesthesia Head Nurse |
| Team Member | Dr. Henry Pitman | General Surgeon |
| Team Member | Edna Stevens | Circulating Nurse |
| Team Member | Edward Dempsey | Respiratory Therapy Manager |
| Team Member | Jules Reddington | Lab Manager |
| Team Member | Peter Cummings | Accounting Manager |
| Team Member | Ted Billings | Infection Control Nurse |
| Team Member | Ester Pickings | Outpatient Supervisor |
As a general rule, your value analysis coordinator, manager, or director would recommend your team leaders and members composition to your Value Analysis Steering Committee for their approval. Your facilitators should be selected from your healthcare organization’s pool of supply chain professionals. Fifty percent of your team membership and team leaders should be selected from areas other than the product line or functional area that they will be investigating to avoid territoriality and group think. Your value analysis coordinator, manager, or director should attend all VA team meetings as a resource to your team leaders and members.
Step two in the selection process is to send a questionnaire (Figures 2 and 3) to these individuals’ direct reports, one customer, and one colleague to rate them (on a scale of 1-10) on their ideal VA competencies. Give the rater one week to respond to the questionnaire. The questionnaire should be prepared by and returned to your value analysis coordinator, manager, or director. Naturally, a Value Analysis Steering Committee member can be one of your raters, if they have direct contact with any of these individuals on a day-to-day basis. The reason for doing this is that you only see one face of these individuals, but by having them assessed by numerous other individuals with whom they interact daily, in many different venues, you can truly identify the right candidate to be involved as a leader or member of your value analysis teams.
Figure 2: Team Leader Competency Questionnaire
| Competencies | Rating |
| Motivator | |
| Organized | |
| Team Builder | |
| Enthusiastic | |
| Results Oriented | |
| Communicator | |
| Welcomes Challenges and Change | |
| Anticipates Problems & Resolves Them | |
| Acts as Role Model | |
| Overall Rating: |
Figure 3: Team Member Competency Questionnaire
| Competencies | Rating |
| Analytical Thinker | |
| Organized | |
| Reliable/Dependable | |
| Enthusiastic | |
| Takes Initiative | |
| Computer Literate | |
| Welcomes Challenges and Change | |
| Looks for Growth and Recognition | |
| Acts as Role Model | |
| Overall Rating |
We have shown in Figures 4 and 5 sample consolidated rating sheets for value analysis team leaders and team members that are to be completed by your value analysis coordinator, manager, or director once they received the questionnaires back from your raters. These questions need to be tallied to reflect three ratings for each candidate. Then, average the ratings for a final total to be calculated for each candidate. The ideal team leader and team member candidate will have an overall rating of 8 or higher.
Figure 4: Team Leader Consolidated Rating Sheet
| Ideal Competencies | Rating 1 | Rating 2 | Rating 3 | Avg. Rating |
| Motivator | 8 | 7 | 6 | 7 |
| Organized | 9 | 9 | 7 | 8 |
| Team Builder | 7 | 6 | 8 | 7 |
| Enthusiastic | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Results Oriented | 9 | 7 | 9 | 8 |
| Communicator | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Welcomes Challenges and Change | 9 | 9 | 7 | 8 |
| Anticipates Problems & Resolves Them | 6 | 7 | 9 | 7 |
| Acts as Role Model | 8 | 7 | 9 | 8 |
| Overall Rating: | XXXX | XXXX | XXXX | 8 |
Figure 5: Team Member Consolidated Rating Sheet
| Ideal Competencies | Rating 1 | Rating 2 | Rating 3 | Avg. Rating |
| Analytical Thinker | 9 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| Organized | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Reliable/Dependable | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Enthusiastic | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Takes Initiative | 9 | 9 | 8 | 9 |
| Computer Literate | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Welcomes Challenges and Change | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Looks for Growth and Recognition | 9 | 7 | 7 | 8 |
| Acts as Role Model | 8 | 8 | 6 | 7 |
| Total Rating | XXXX | XXXXX | XXXXX | 8 |
If for any reason your value analysis coordinator, manager, or director doesn’t receive a response back from a rater, they are required to call raters to obtain a rating. If all else fails, then your value analysis coordinator, manager, or director must send a new questionnaire out to new raters, until you have three ratings for each candidate for team membership. If any candidate has a total overall score below eight, then you need to start the selection process all over again until you have identified team leaders and members that have a rating above eight.
Avoid Selecting The Usual Suspects
Over the years, we have seen value analysis team leaders and members selected because of their title (director of nursing, operating room supervisor, infection control nurse, etc.) or influence in their healthcare organization, as opposed to their unique competencies, with disastrous results. For instance, once a CFO client asked me to assign his medical library director to his new value analysis team because he thought she would be a good team player, which I acceded to. Unfortunately, this individual turned out to be one of the worst value analysis team members in my memory because she wasn’t an analytical thinker, not computer literate, and didn’t take initiative on any of her value analysis projects.
That’s why we developed the 360-Degree Feedback System. We found it to be the solution to selecting the right people with the right competencies that are needed to have high performance value analysis teams. We have done the research for you so that you won’t make the mistake that we have made in the past of selecting the wrong team leaders and team members for your value analysis teams.
| About Robert T. Yokl, Founder & Chief Value Strategist for SVAH Solutions |
|---|
| Robert T. Yokl is President and Chief Value Strategist at SVAH Solutions. He has four decades of experience as a healthcare supply chain manager and consultant, and also is the co-creator of the Clinitrack Value Analysis Software and Utilizer Clinical Utilization Management Dashboard that moves beyond price for even deeper and broader clinical supply utilization savings. Yokl is a member of Bellwether League’s Bellwether Class of 2018. https://www.SVAH-Solutions.com https://www.SavingsValidator.com |
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