Everything affects quality and cost in our healthcare value analysis world; the moment you try to make a change in a product or service, you can easily upset the balance that is already set in place. The challenge is that we are always upsetting this balance to implement new products, gain better cost savings, standardize to consolidate volumes, or find better patient solutions for better outcomes. Yes, we are talking about change, and it is never ending in healthcare. As much as things remain the same, they are always changing due to many factors.
It’s Not One or the Other – We Must Optimize Both Costs and Quality
I remember hearing the CEO of a large hospital say, “We are not changing things just to save money!” This was said in a meeting in which we were only talking about cost savings opportunities for his hospital and the clinicians were pushing back. The first inclination is to side with your clinicians and give them the benefit of the doubt on whether to make changes, but they might not always be experts in saving money. Without keeping costs in check, it will be very difficult for health systems to keep a healthy bottom line. When you don’t have a healthy bottom line, you don’t have the funds to advance your organization. We must keep optimizing costs while maintaining and/or improving quality – and value analysis can do this!
Below are four best practices that will help you understand the changes you are going to propose and help you to not get caught in the cost or quality conundrum but instead optimize both at the same time.
1. Start with Empathy – Your end customers, whether they be clinicians, surgeons, or department heads/managers, are married to the products that you are now going to propose changing. You need to be mindful of this and consider their uses and their feelings (yup, feelings) on this. It is not just a change of product you are proposing – it could entail much more. You change the product, and they may have to change policies and procedures as well as get a handle on the ins and outs of the use patterns of this product change.
2. Take Subjectivity Out of the Equation Using the VA Functional Approach – Remember, one person’s opinion on quality is not the same as another person’s, and it is no different in the healthcare world. If you focus on functionality and reliability, you will take out the subjective nature to whatever product or service you are analyzing for a change.
3. Be Clear About Why You Are Making Changes on Both Sides of the Coin – Ensure you have thoroughly evaluated the potential upstream and downstream impacts of any proposed changes. In most cases, an incumbent product is already in use, giving you the opportunity to consult customers, stakeholders, and internal experts to uncover any cross-functional requirements that may not have been initially considered. While products may be line items within a contract, on the clinical floors they are mission-critical to patient care and safety. Approach them with the level of diligence and respect that responsibility demands.
4. Go In with a Win/Win Mindset – Never walk into a value analysis discussion thinking someone must win or lose to move forward. The bottom line is that we all need to win together – and that is what value analysis is all about. You should identify solutions that satisfy your customers’ needs throughout the change process while also delivering your VA team’s objectives and organizational goals. There is no them or us, it is WE!
Change is Inevitable in the Healthcare Supply Chain
We at SVAH are trackers of products and we see all the changes that happen on an ongoing basis at hospitals throughout the country. Some health systems change hundreds of products due to many factors like contract conversions, vendors discontinuing products, or resilience issues, as well as the addition of new products to the care mix. This is all happening while clinicians are trying to take the best care of patients and get the best outcomes possible. There is a lot at stake for any change in a healthcare environment – let’s get this right on an ongoing basis for all!
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