There is a movement to get even more involvement from clinicians in value analysis as a better way to integrate them into the supply chain and value analysis processes. This is great in theory but putting that into action is another thing altogether and may not always give you the results you want just by moving the chess pieces into their proper places. There must be solid strategies and processes built into your Clinical Engagement Program (CEP) to get the most out of your clinicians getting further involved in your value analysis program.
Clinicians being physicians, nurses, lab techs, pharmacists, radiology technicians, or anyone working in a patient care area are first and foremost revenue generators for the health system. Revenues are the lifeblood of healthcare organizations so you must be careful with your clinicians’ time and must be very strategic in how, why, and what you want them to be involved in and what you don’t need them involved in. These are two important aspects because otherwise, wasting clinicians’ time could be costing your organization money regardless of whether they are employees of the health system or not.
How to Ensure Successful Clinician Involvement in Value Analysis
Make Sure the Clinicians Can Work Within Your VA Framework – Adding a clinician to a team is great, but before you add them to your VA team, it is important that you first test them with one or two key projects. Why? Well, like VA team members and team leaders, not all are cut out to work in the Value Analysis environment and you need to find this out before adding a clinician to an important role on your VA team. You don’t want them to just show up to your VA team meetings and do nothing but give feedback and vote – you need more than that from them!
Clarify the Functions You Want Them to Engage In – Don’t beat around the bush – if you are adding a physician to a VA team, set out exactly what you are looking for them to do right up front. They want to know this too and leaving it undocumented/unsaid is just going to open this up for interpretation that may not benefit your VA Program, or provide the end results you seek. The same goes for adding anyone to a VA team but it is even more important if they are a clinician. For example, if you are adding a Surgical Nurse Manager to the team, you want them to provide feedback and work on projects related to their department.
Strategically Select New Clinicians for Your Teams – Just adding a new nurse or radiology tech to replace the previous team member does not sound very strategic because it isn’t. Just taking a new clinical team member on who is only there to cover the bases for a particular department is not really adding value to your VA team. You want someone who will actively engage in your VA process and projects to bring about the ongoing goals and objectives of your team. Seek out the best for your teams – don’t just have them assigned to you.
Train Your New Team Members, Especially Clinicians – This should go without saying but even more so with clinicians as they need to understand your process, not just from a workflow standpoint but your actual value analysis project process, to be of the greatest value to your supply/value chain programs.
The keys that I outlined above may seem like no brainers, but far too often they are forgotten in the challenging world of healthcare value analysis. With health systems looking to get more savings and better outcomes while maintaining and/or improving the quality of care, it is important that you raise the bar on your value analysis teams every time you add a new VA team member or leader to the mix. Value analysis is very much strategic and you must build and enhance your teams with each and every new team member/leader.
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