The costliest mistakes we have seen that are made by technology value analysis teams are those involving the value justifications of new technology for their healthcare organization. One reason for this happening is that these technology purchases are infrequent events (i.e., your hospital, system, or IDN doesn’t buy a telemetry system every day), so in many cases your value analysis technology team and even the requester of this technology is flying blind. Here’s how to avoid the most egregious mistakes.
4 Secret Techniques to Improve Your Healthcare Technology Value Analysis Assessments
No matter the size, scope, or sophistication (i.e., diagnostic scopes to CT scanners) of your technology purchases, these four secret techniques will greatly improve your technology assessment value analysis process:
- Financial Justification: The first step in any technology assessment should be to first financially justify the technology purchase, because if you can’t make the numbers work financially you shouldn’t be buying it. Therefore, you need a representative from your finance department to financially justify these purchases.
- Evidence-Based Decisions: There are now numerous independent third-party sources to assist you in making evidenced-based decisions with their data on your technology purchases that no technology value analysis team should be without. In our opinion, it would be unprofessional not to do so!
- Don’t Be the First to Buy: There is no reason for your healthcare organization to be the first to buy a new technology, unless you are a beta site receiving a big discount where there is little or no cost to do so. Preferably, the new technology should have a two to three-year track record before you consider it for purchase. This way, the major/minor issues should be worked out of the technology when you buy it.
- Function-Driven Process: You only should be buying functions, bidding functions, and evaluating functions. Otherwise, you could be buying functions and features you don’t need or want. To save big time, only buy what is absolutely, positively necessary!
These four steps can save you millions in new technology purchases in any given year, yet still provide the technology you need to maintain your competitive advantage with your competitors. Remember, you don’t need everything that is requested!
Value Justifying Technology Is More than Appointing a VA Team
Value justifying the technology you buy is more than having a technology value analysis team in place to vet the technology you buy for your healthcare organization. More importantly, your technology value analysis team needs a defined process to follow, like the one I have outlined above, that will help them reject more technology purchases than they approve and slash the cost of technology that meets or exceeds their project goals and objectives. All this without adversely affecting your healthcare organization’s quality or outcomes.