“A value analysis committee without performance metrics is like a sporting event that doesn’t keep score — the process exists, but accountability does not.”
Before you dismiss this as just another article discussing the importance of metrics and KPIs within the value analysis process – STOP! This isn’t that kind of article. I want to discuss the vital importance of monitoring and tracking YOUR COMMITTEE. Healthcare has and continues to change at lightning speed, particularly our profession in value analysis. We have witnessed rapid morphs from a purchasing office in the basement to robust clinically integrated supply chain teams that have a direct line to the C-suite. Hospitals and those that run them may realize the importance of a healthy VA program, but all too often still wonder (aloud at times), “What is it that you do again? How does it help our bottom line?” It can become frustrating to continually have to explain the team’s worth. In today’s healthcare environment, the value analysis committee (VAC) is one of the most consequential — and frequently underestimated — functions within an integrated delivery network. Charged with evaluating new products, managing standardization initiatives, navigating complex vendor relationships, and protecting both clinical outcomes and financial margins, the VAC carries an enormous mandate. Yet across the industry, far too many of these committees operate without any formal framework for measuring their own performance. The continued evolution of value analysis needs to include clear and directional performance metrics for your committee.
While this gap may be a result of a rapidly evolving new healthcare specialty — failing to monitor your VAC is a strategic liability. Without key performance indicators (KPIs), even a high-functioning VAC cannot fully articulate its value to organizational leadership, identify where processes are breaking down, or demonstrate the return on the significant time and clinical expertise it consumes. In short, if you’re not measuring it, you’re not managing it.
From Reactive to Strategic
Without defined metrics, many VACs fall back into old habits — your VAC becomes nothing more than a monthly product request and approval meeting. KPIs help tell the story and fundamentally change that dynamic. They establish a shared language of success that crosses departmental lines, anchoring the committee’s work in data rather than opinion.
More importantly, KPIs create organizational accountability. When a VAC can demonstrate — with specificity — that it reduced product category spend by 16% over three quarters while maintaining high clinical satisfaction scores, that committee earns a seat at the strategic table. It shifts the conversation from, “What does value analysis do?” to, “How can we resource value analysis to do more?”
The Core KPI Domains Every VAC Should Track
While all organization’s priorities differ, high-performing VACs typically track metrics across three interconnected domains:
1. Process Efficiency/Cycle Time
How long does it take from product submission to VAC approval? What is the timeframe between VAC approval and implementation completion? This one data set alone is a great indicator of operational health. How often have you attended VAC meetings only to see the same product on the agenda for > 6 months? Extended cycle times frustrate clinicians and risk delegitimizing the committee’s value and integrity. Tracking request volume, committee throughput, and decision turnaround time allows organizations to assess their process and right-size committee resources. Consider tracking the following:
- How many meetings were held during FY? (It may surprise you to see, for example, half of all CV/IR VACs were cancelled.)
- Percentage of attendance compared to attendee list.
- How many submissions are there in total? Approved? Declined?
2. Financial Performance
While it’s great that most VACs track their savings each month, that alone doesn’t tell the full story of the hard work behind those numbers! Instead of presenting a lone number to your suite, provide data that highlights overall contract compliance, SKU reduction, improved outcomes, patient satisfaction, and market share movement which in turn impacts tier pricing. A committee that negotiates impressive savings on paper but cannot drive compliant utilization is leaving value on the table.
3. Clinical and Safety Outcomes
Take credit for all the time and effort the value analysis committee places on outcomes. This part of VA continues long after the product finds the end user. Adverse event tracking, post-conversion incident reporting, and clinician satisfaction surveys tied to product decisions protect both patients and the organization’s legal standing. They also provide the VAC with the clinical credibility needed to sustain physician engagement. While it’s almost impossible to place an ROI on engagement – a VAC without it is doomed for failure.
Translating Data into Organizational Influence
Collecting this type of data is only the first step. The real leverage comes from presenting that data consistently and compellingly to leadership. A quarterly VAC performance dashboard — showing trend lines, benchmarks against industry standards, and narrative context around significant variances — repositions the committee from a compliance function to a strategic asset.
There is a competitive dimension to this as well. In an era of increasingly sophisticated vendor engagement — where suppliers arrive at the table with total cost of ownership models, outcome data, and customized IDN analytics — a VAC that can respond in kind is far better positioned. A well-documented performance record signals to vendors that this organization negotiates from evidence, not preference, and expects the same in return.
A Standard Worth Adopting
The clinically integrated healthcare supply chain has matured astronomically over the past decade. Value analysis, once seen as a cost-cutting exercise and monthly product approval meeting, is increasingly recognized as a function of both clinical quality and financial stewardship — one that requires the same rigor, infrastructure, and accountability as any other high-stakes organizational process.
Tracking KPIs is not about adding bureaucratic overhead to an already demanding role. It is about ensuring that the work the value analysis committee does — the careful evaluation, the difficult standardization conversations, the clinician education, the vendor accountability — is visible, defensible, and continuously improving. In a healthcare environment where every dollar and every outcome carry weight, that kind of accountability is not optional.
It’s the whole point.
Article by:
Jillian Jalbert, JD, BS, RN, CVAHP, ESQ
Jillian Jalbert is a value analysis nurse with extensive experience in IDN supply chain strategy, VAC facilitation, and product evaluation. She specializes in connecting clinical outcomes to financial performance across integrated delivery networks.
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