Healthcare organizations’ value analysis programs have greatly matured over the last 20 years, but have they reached their full potential? It’s our contention that they haven’t reached the highest level of performance thus far. With this said, here are four essential elements that we have observed of exceptionally successful healthcare value analysis programs you need to model if you’re to truly reach your full VA potential:
1. Establish a Value Analysis Steering Committee: As we have often repeated, if you don’t have a value analysis steering committee to guide, monitor, and champion your value analysis program, you are missing a key link element to the superior performance of your value analysis teams. The committee is chaired by your CFO, COO, or Vice President of Operations. The committee members would be your team leaders, team administrative representatives, and your key stakeholders. The committee would meet monthly to review, discuss, and guide the progress of your value analysis program.
2. Invest in Value Analysis Advanced Training: It has been our observation that very few value analysis managers or VA team members have had even one hour of advanced value analysis training. Yet, these same VA team members review, approve, and implement millions of dollars of new product, service, and technology contracts annually. If you think VA training is costly, just think of what it is costing your healthcare organization not to have training in proper value analysis strategies, techniques, and best practices!
3. Adopt a VA Project Management Model: Instead of treating your VA teams as passive committees who discuss and approve recommendations for new and current products, services, and technologies, adopt a VA project management model in which your VA team members become project managers for your new product request evaluations or current product retrospective studies. This way you have someone accountable for the outcome of each VA project. This will also speed up your VA team approval or denial process.
4. Establish Savings Goals for VA Teams: Rather than hope (which isn’t a strategy) that your value analysis teams save money each year, establish specific savings goals for each of your VA teams annually. You will then monitor and publish their progress on a monthly basis. You will be amazed at how these techniques will make VA savings happen!
Value analysis is an art and science. It has a number of essential elements that have proven to be successful in improving your value analysis program’s performance. The above four essentials have been proven to help VA teams leap forward in their performance almost overnight. We suggest that you at least try these four techniques for 90 days to see if they improve your value analysis program performance too.
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