In this age of healthcare cost reduction, cost containment, and reinvention, your value analysis program needs to do more than just obtain the best price and standardize on the products, services, and technologies you are buying. You must go one step further to rein in your commodities’ lifecyle cost for maximum contribution to your healthcare organization’s bottom line. In our opinion, this can only be accomplished by implementing a Total Value Analysis Model (TVAM) that will reinvent your VA structure, energize your VA teams (people), mandate VA education, promote VA analytics, and professionalize your VA project management. Here are the TVAM program elements you should be aiming for:
Structure:
- Steering Committee
- Team Types
- Team Make-up
- VA Strategic Planning
Education:
- VA Process Training
- VA Project Management
- VA Communications
- VA Change Management
- Team Leader Training
People:
- VA Program Champion
- VA Coordinator(s)
- Team Leaders
- Facilitators
- Recorders
- Meeting Management
VA Analytics and Project Management:
- VA Project Management Software
- VA Meeting Management Software
- Benchmarking (Price and Utilization)
- Utilization Management Software
- Evidence-Based Reporting Services (Hayes, ECRI, etc.)
The above checklist outlines the things you need to be thinking about as you adopt the TVAM model. TVAM is not about appointing a value analysis team or teams and telling them to go save money. It’s about developing the appropriate management structure to manage your VA program, selecting the right people to lead your VA teams, educating them, and then digging deeper with VA analytics to uncover savings projects that need to be managed skillfully by your VA team members. To do less is to risk losing your competitive edge in the healthcare marketplace.