I have seen value analysis team members travel 39, 49, or even 59 miles to attend a value analysis team meeting. Now that more and more hospitals are merging with health systems and IDNs this is a practice that could, but shouldn’t be considered routine. That’s because it is a waste of time, money, and effort for those making the journey. This is why progressive value analysis leaders are seriously considering or actually conducting “virtual” value analysis team meetings in lieu of face-to-face.
The Time and Cost of Holding a Value Analysis Meeting is Huge
When you consider that the average clinical value analysis team member’s salary plus benefits is $46.00 per hour, the holding of a one-hour value analysis meeting with ten members is costing your hospital, system, or IDN $460.00. If you have more team members or they have to travel a distance for your meetings, like the above scenario, your cost could be as high as $1,000 per team meeting. So as you can see, value analysis meetings can easily be very costly if not planned, managed, and led proficiently.
Virtual Value Analysis Meetings Can Be Even More Efficient and Effective
Let’s face it, most face-to-face value analysis team meetings that I have attended start late and end late and have too many off topic sidebar conversations in-between. This doesn’t happen with the virtual value analysis meetings I have attended because they are well planned, tightly scheduled, and team members are at multiple locations with few distractions. In brief, virtual value analysis meetings can be more productive, more efficient, and more effective than face-to-face!
Three Additional Reasons Why Virtual VA Meetings Can Be More Productive
Before you discount virtual VA meetings as a fad look at three additional reasons for conducting them:
- Decrease Time and Cost of Travel: As already stated, time and money can be saved, even if a team member is just coming from another building.
- No Need for Meeting or Conference Rooms: My experience has been that there is never enough conference or meeting rooms in a healthcare organization for meetings. Virtual meetings solve this big problem that all VA teams have when scheduling their meetings.
- Get Back to Their Real Jobs More Quickly: If you want to reduce your “no shows” at VA meetings, make it easy for busy managers, supervisors, and their staff to attend your meetings without leaving their office.
Don’t forget that virtual value analysis meetings are real meetings with real people; they just don’t have a table, chairs, coffee or donuts and aren’t wasting any time and money.
Should All of Your Value Analysis Meetings Be Virtual?
I wouldn’t recommend that all of your value analysis meetings be virtual, since it is important for your VA team members to build relationships with each other so they can continue their dialog or be part of work teams outside of your VA meetings. Otherwise, you could have strangers meeting together without a clue of how they should act or react to discourses, interchanges, and discussions.
With this said, I would suggest quarterly face-to-face value analysis meetings be held for the purpose of team and relationship building and face-to-face engagement. This way, your VA team members won’t be strangers any longer and can relate to each other inside and outside your VA meetings. The takeaway from this article should be that virtual value analysis meetings are geared for today’s busy managers, budget conscious directors, and designed for continued VA success.