Value analysis (VA) has become quite the consuming job for value analysis and supply chain professionals in healthcare supply chain. There is much more attached to value analysis program functions than just evaluating products, services, and technologies. There are whole workflows for new product requests, recall management, backorders/resilience management, and contract conversions to name a few. With all of these being mission critical to healthcare organizations today, this leaves out one of the most important elements that you could use value analysis for. That missing element is retrospective value analysis reviews!
Most VA professionals have little or no time to work on what they would deem a value analysis special project, as it is outside the box of what you normally handle in your day-to-day duties. But it is one of the most vital aspects that we can do as VA practitioners because things, people, contracts, products, and processes change that can affect the product’s cost, reliability, quality, and life cycle value. We cannot just let these things flap in the wind, we need to know for sure if we got it right the first time and if it is still right in the short and long term.
Happenstance is one of the biggest reasons we run into cost and quality issues with products, services, and technologies because we are so caught up in the loop of performing all the other duties of value analysis that we don’t have a lot of time for this vitally important element. As far as the results you will get with performing retrospective value analysis reviews, you will find major savings and quality improvement opportunities that you wouldn’t otherwise know about, and if you don’t find anything negative, then you have peace of mind that you did it right the first time and it is holding strong with cost and quality. Below are just three benefits of performing retrospective VA reviews:
- Find Cost Savings Beyond Price – Just because you check all the boxes on new product requests, contract conversions, and implementations does not mean that other things are not happening within all the contract categories. Unless you have a sophisticated consumption/utilization management system in place, you won’t truly be able to tell unless you lift the cover and do a quick retrospective review.
- Find Quality Improvements – There are a lot of quality improvement initiatives that are resolved by adding more products in hospitals. We need to trust that these were the right things to do but also verify that the desired results are in fact happening. If you switched to using a silver foley catheter to reduce urinary tract infections, are UTI rates decreasing or not? And did they go down to the projected levels you were looking for in your original implementation?
- Fine Tune Vendor Product Line Within the Contract – One of the best areas of improvement in supply chain is fine tuning the products within your contracts. Think about how many categories of contracts you have, then how many products are within those categories. Think how many are feature-rich products that can be dialed down without affecting end results or functional requirements but will go a long way in reducing costs. Instead of standardization, perhaps think about customization. There is plenty of value to uncover by fine tuning product lines that will result in major savings and quality results.
The good news is that retrospective value analysis reviews do not have to be complex or even involve the VA teams you have in place, unless they want to be involved or you need them to be. Just select a viable review to perform and away you go!
Getting started doesn’t require a formal program or committee approval. It simply requires picking one contract category, product line, or clinical initiative that’s due for a second look and giving it a few focused hours. Pull the utilization data, check in with the clinicians using the product, and compare where things landed against what was promised when the decision was made. You may be surprised how often a “settled” decision has drifted, quietly, in ways nobody flagged because nobody was looking. That drift is exactly what retrospective value analysis is built to catch.
As healthcare supply chains face mounting pressure to do more with less, retrospective value analysis reviews may be one of the most underused tools available to prove and/or improve the value already sitting inside your existing contracts. It’s not about second-guessing past decisions; it’s about closing the loop on them. Build it into your calendar as a recurring habit rather than a one-time project, even if it’s just one review a quarter, and you’ll turn value analysis from a front-loaded, one-and-done exercise into an ongoing discipline that keeps paying dividends long after the initial implementation is behind you.
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