“Most often, you will find solid cost savings and many times we have seen them be even bigger than the original savings goal.”
I cannot tell you how many times a juicy six-digit cost savings opportunity is brought to a value analysis or even supply chain leadership team meeting only for the team members to start with the lip service on why it is not real. If you have presented similar big dollar savings to these teams, then you know this is a real occurrence that happens often. The team members only know what is reported and they persist in doubting that the savings opportunity is real, even to the point that they may not even investigate the big savings due to one or two team members’ reasons why they are running higher or spending too much. Today, we cannot let good savings be shot down this easily.
How Do You Instill a Cost Savings Mindset?
The mindset of your team leaders and team members is important because the adage, “Everyone is for change (savings) until it comes to their doorstep (department)” still applies here. If you are a client of SVAH’s, then you know that we don’t just hang our hat on one metric or benchmark when we present because we know you need to triangulate the savings to ensure it is believable. With the triangulation you may have a 40% increase in year over year and 33% increase over cohort best practice or even your system average. This gives you the proof that something is amiss and needs to be investigated further.
There was a 1969 Miracle Mets with their slogan, “You Gotta Believe,” which applies to the savings mindset. If you don’t believe there are cost savings to be had, then more than likely your team is not going to find much. But if you believe there are savings and follow through with all your value analysis strategies, such as SVAH’s 6-Step Funneling Process, then your odds go much higher. Plus, it gives you confidence that you will be wringing the towel dry on savings and not leaving any dollars on the table.
The Bottom Line on Cost Savings
In today’s inflationary times that are impacting our health system’s bottom lines in a big way, we can no longer just talk away cost savings without delving in further with solid value analysis methods and practices to ascertain whether the savings opportunities are real or not. Granted, you must have solid proof such as clinical supply utilization benchmarks or cohort best practices that help triangulate whether the savings are provable enough for your efforts. Most often, you will find solid savings and many times we have seen the savings be even bigger than the original savings goal. Don’t just let savings be talked away. Make sure you take that next step to prove that it is real and to not let any savings slip away.
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