Most seasoned value analysis professionals have come to the realization that value analysis is not just about value analysis in our healthcare systems. Value analysis is becoming very popular, and I would even go so far as to call it mission critical to the cost, quality, and outcomes improvements at your organization. There is much more to value analysis than meets the eye, and things that you should be working towards that can make you and your teams even better every month, quarter, and year.
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” – Henry Ford, Industrialist
1. Making Sure You Are All on the Same Page – Most organizations’ value analysis programs are homegrown in regard to how the teams are structured, leaders are chosen, and members are selected. Just because you have formed these great teams with great thought and intention does not mean that they are instantly going to bring great results. Hopefully your team members are going to come in with some form of VA experience from either your previous program or another health system that may be congruent with how you plan to do business. Others will come to the team with no knowledge at all of how the value analysis process works. You must be prepared for this and the best way to make sure that everyone is on the same page is to implement a Team Based Project Management Process for your VA initiatives.
By having a Standardized VA Project Management Process in place, you can put every team member on the same page and instill your process in them. Remember, not only are they team members, but they are also department heads and managers that are budget owners. These are great skills to transfer to them for the short and long term.
2. Stop Being a Lone Ranger – Value analysis committees are just that, they are committees where the members gather and an agenda is gone through to which all the projects, details, and workups are handled by a select one, two, or three individuals. The committees then make decisions based on the workups being presented. If you are one of these select individuals that do all the leg work month in and month out, then you are a “VA Lone Ranger” and you need to get out of that because you are going to burn yourself out.
It is time to move your VA committees into VA teams whereby your team members can take responsibility for VA projects and initiatives on their own using your Team Based Project Management VA Process. This may be a tough pill to swallow for those that have been part of a VA committee for years, but the new way and more productive way to handle VA initiatives is to have more participation from your team members.
3. Master the Art of Asking Great Questions – It is impossible to be a subject matter expert for all of the 2,000+ categories of purchase that you could come across in a value analysis initiative. You don’t have to be a subject matter expert, but you must be able to bring the important facts and information out of your organization’s subject matter experts. Think of the old Barbara Walters interviews where she made the big celebrities cry and they would say, “No one ever asked me this question before.” You have to be a next-level question asker to be successful at value analysis, otherwise you will be steam rolled by the lip service and excuses that come along with our duties.
The More You Know About Value Analysis the More You Don’t Know
Mastering the small yet extremely important skills of value analysis is just as important as mastering the Value Analysis Functional Teaming Approach that we all utilize day in and day out. Many of these things are not as difficult to learn as others. I have outlined just a few but there are many more that you should identify and bring into your own mastered skillsets. VA is a never-ending journey that you will enjoy much more as you build your own personal toolbox of mastered skills to bring to the table in a successful way.
| 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 |
Articles you may like:
Are Manual Systems Holding Back Value Analysis Decision Making?
