Every value analysis professional has their own mindset for how they do business at their healthcare organization. There is a lot that goes into your mindset as a VA professional, and it starts with lots of experience and making mistakes but also getting those small (and big) wins along the way. Plus, every health system is different in how they interact with value analysis teams and handle VA systems, workflows, and functions. It’s about knowing your teams, knowing your customers, and working on your internal and external processes, systems, and workflows to bring about results. There is a lot that goes into a VA mindset, but it should never be etched in stone and should always be open to new and better ideas and best practices.
Below, I have highlighted some very important VA mindset best practices that I believe will be of high value to you:
- You Have Gotta Believe! – The first rule of savings in value analysis is that there are always savings to be found that can be actionable. Price savings are a different ball game – you may come to the point of diminishing returns as you can only lower prices so far. However, with value analysis we get to deal with the total cost of a product concerning its features, functionality, and quantities used that relate to waste and inefficiencies. Plus, people change, policies change, processes change, vendors change, and contracts change the landscape of any product category – and we have hundreds of them. There are always savings, you just need to find where those savings are hiding.
- Don’t Let Anyone Talk Away Good Savings – This best practice is an oldie but a goodie, as even today you will find that end customers will immediately try to talk away viable savings opportunities that you have brought to the table. It is odd that they immediately go into talking away savings opportunities when you bring up cost overruns, waste, or feature-rich products, but they do this all the time. Your mindset should be to hold true to the savings and not get thrown off by the knee-jerk initial point of view that there are somehow no savings to be achieved. Stand tall, work with those department heads and managers/customers to prove that the savings opportunities are real. The worst thing a VA professional can do is walk away from viable savings without a proper value analysis study being performed.
- We Are Part of Their Team and They Are Part of Ours – We are all on the same team. We all require data and our customers to work with us on our various new product requests, contract conversions, and cost optimization reviews. It is not us versus them, it is us working together as the money we save or the quality we improve or the revenues we ensure are happening are all going to the same health system.
- Give Credit Where Credit is Due – We often fail to praise good value analysis work but given the fact that nobody gets paid more for participating in a VA team(s), the best currency is praise when good work is done. Most often, it is the end customers or stakeholders who really make the savings or quality improvements happen in their departments – we are just the facilitators of the process. Make sure when they win big you make it known.
T.E.A.M – Together Everyone Achieves More!
All of the information above may sound basic and straightforward – and it is. In many ways, value analysis is a straightforward process that is based on the functional requirements of our customers. We must focus our efforts on functionality and not get caught up in some study or contracting challenge that takes us down a rabbit hole of nothingness. Focus on functionality in 2026 – that is what value analysis is all about. It is the study of function. Solve problems with function and save by finding equal or better functionality. In the end, you will save big and solve many problems along the way.
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