“If you think (VA) training is expensive, just think of the cost of not training (your value analysis team)” 

Zig Ziglar

If you discovered that your stock broker, financial advisor or banker, who invests your money, has no formal training, would you continue to do business with him or her?  If your doctor had no medical training, would you trust your healthcare to him or her? So, why are most hospitals, systems or IDNs trusting their value analysis teams with millions of dollars in purchasing decisions annually without any formal value analysis training?

It’s our estimate that only one out of ten value analysis teams have formal training in the value analysis methodology.  Considering these same teams approve millions of dollars of new purchases annually for their healthcare organization, this is an astonishing fact.  Can you think of any other healthcare disciple, such as, pharmacy, nursing or, respiratory therapy that could practice their occupation without any training?

To the contrary, too many value analysis teams that we have observed have made up their own home-grown version of the value analysis methodology as opposed to being trained in the classic tenets of value analysis as created by Larry Miles, the father of value analysis.  Thus they are, squandering their healthcare organization’s money, because they don’t have the necessary skills to monitor, manage and control their healthcare organizations spend. Only through training can these skills be acquired.

Pro’s and Con’s for Value Analysis Training

I know that everyone has an opinion on training, so here are a few pro’s and cons on training that we have heard that can help you build a case for change:

Although, you can always build a case for not training, it’s hard to ignore the fact that training is the shortcut to excellence.  If you want to be mediocre in VA or worse yet, your teams are costing your hospital, system or IDN money, just continue not to train your value analysis teams in the art and science of value analysis.

If you think training is expensive, just think of the cost of not training

We have seen value analysis teams approve a new product that unknowingly cost their healthcare organization fifty thousand annually and didn’t save even a dime on the project. All because of lack of  training in the art and science of value analysis.

Value analysis has a body of knowledge developed over 67 years by value analysis practitioners that can’t be learned by attending value analysis meetings. You need to invest the time and money in formal classroom advanced value analysis training to be proficient at this discipline. Because if you think VA training is costly, just think of the cost of not training your VA leaders and team members.  It could be millions annually.