Value analysis begins and ends with the customer, and it is ever more important to learn as much as possible from our customers, stakeholders, and experts on our VA projects. You must be a good interviewer to bring out not only what your customers want or need but then also be able to translate that to real value analysis functional requirements, life cycle value, reliability, and quality. Remember, value analysis is the study of function and the search for lower cost alternatives with equal or better quality/reliability. You just can’t rely on what is requested on a piece of paper or on what product they have been using for the past few years to give you all your answers. You must go directly to the source which is your customers, stakeholders, and experts.
Don’t Be Intimidated by a Customer’s Title
I remember a few years back when I was sitting in a conference room at a client hospital because our linen utilization reporting discovered that the Emergency Department was using too many bath blankets by over 300% more per month. The ED using more bath blankets was not in dispute for this meeting so it was important we find out why and what could be done about this. But this was not just a meeting with the ED Manager and/or Director. We also had the ED Chairperson who heard about our outrageous linen utilization report that stated that her department was using 300% more bath blankets, and I could tell by the look on her face that I was in for a fight.
Instantly, the ED Chairperson started the meeting and promptly tried to squash the excessive usage of bath blankets with the fact that they were so busy in their ED and were so unique that they required more bath blankets than most other Emergency Departments. Basically, she was not going to let this discussion go any further, but I was determined to interview both the Chairperson and the ED Manager on this topic. As soon as the ED Chairperson finished talking, I asked one question. “What are you using to elevate patients’ limbs in the ED?” All eyes turned to the ED Manager, and she said, “We use bath blankets and as a matter of fact, we use two or three per elevation sometimes.” Next, I turned to the Environmental/Housekeeping Data Analyst (yeah, they were so big they had an analyst in Environ.) and asked him what the difference in cost was between laundering a towel and a bath blanket. He said that they could use up to eight towels before equaling the cost of laundering one bath blanket. Bingo! Everyone realized that they should be using towels for elevation instead of bath blankets. Two questions and a big savings!
You May Only Get One Shot for a Value Analysis Interview – Make it Count
Hospitals are a busy place, and if you are going to set up a time to interview a key customer or stakeholder, you better be prepared to ask all your questions because you may only get that one chance. Yes, prepare your questions ahead of time so that you can ask smart, well-thought-out questions that are worthy of your customers’ and stakeholders’ time they are sharing with you. This will also force you to craft valid questions to ask your key customers and stakeholders as sometimes you want to just talk about the product they are requesting or that is causing a problem. Remember, healthcare is a busy place, and you cannot expect them to provide you with all the nuanced details of their use patterns, outcomes, and problems with a product unless prompted to with a good question.
How Do You Know What Questions to Ask When You Are Not a Subject Matter Expert?
You cannot expect to be a subject matter expert in many of the product, service, and technology projects that you work on in VA as it would be impossible to acquire that much experience. You don’t have to be a subject matter expert. All you need to do is find out who knows the most about that product, service, or technology within the organization or even outside your organization for them to be your resident expert. Recruit your resident expert who hopefully does not have any bias one way or the other of the changes that could be made with your VA project but instead wants the project to succeed. Then you will work with your resident experts to find out everything about your product or service and they will assist you in crafting the questions you want to ask in your interviews with the key customers and stakeholders.
Trust but Verify with Your Resident Expert
Once you do have an interview with your key customers and stakeholders, you want to rely on that information to build your functional requirements or brainstorm for solutions to the problem that is the reason for your value analysis project. You will need to validate what your customers and stakeholders provide for you and the best person to do that with is your resident expert. They can point you in the right direction to find out more facts or be able to speak for the information provided to you by the key customers and stakeholders during your interviews.
What Are Perfect Questions to Ask in an Interview?
I learned a long time ago from a trainer that followed the Barbara Walters style of question asking where she always seemed to get those close-to-the-vest celebrities, statesmen, and even Presidents talking like none other. She frequently used questions like, “Can you explain to me? Can you describe for me? Tell us about…, etc.” These are powerful questions that will get your customers to open up to you like you never thought possible. “Dr. Jones, can you explain to me exactly what is not working right with your current surgical energy instrument versus the instrument you are requesting in your new product request?” It is powerful to ask the right questions!
VA interviewing may be one of the most difficult skills to master because there is no training for being a good interviewer when it comes to VA projects. Just because you have open communications with your key customers and stakeholders does not mean that they are going to offer up everything you need to produce a viable VA project result. It is your job as a VA Practitioner to seek out the answers to the tough questions but first you must craft the right questions in order to be successful. Master this skill and there is nothing you can’t uncover in your VA projects moving forward!
| About Robert W. Yokl, President of SVAH Solutions |
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| Robert is the President of SVAH Solutions which provides value analysis, clinical supply utilization, and savings validation tools to help healthcare organizations gain the next level of savings beyond price and standardization. https://www.SVAH-Solutions.com https://www.SavingsValidation.com |
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