Tasked with driving innovation and improving quality while simultaneously controlling costs, healthcare leaders are in an incredibly difficult position. As healthcare costs continue to rise, these challenges become even more critical. Some leaders are leaning on a proven, strategic framework for support.
Based on a set of core principles, value analysis is a discipline originally intended to address clinicians’ requests for new therapeutic or medical technology.1 Before adopting new products, it was necessary to evaluate them for efficacy, safety and cost effectiveness in light of organizations’ unique patient safety and care standards, finances, and cost-saving objectives.
As such, value analysis became integral to the supply chain. However, as the healthcare landscape evolves with increasing complexity and an ever-broadening scope of procedures, diagnoses, tools and technologies, leaders are beginning to view the theory and practice of value analysis in a much more strategic way.
Becker’s Hospital Review recently spoke with Suzanne Smith, BSN, RN, solution advisor at GHX, about the role of value analysis as organizations pursue innovation and the need to deliver high-quality, evidence-based patient care at a sustainable cost.
Enabling cost management without compromising care quality & patient safety
Value analysis is a specialized discipline that encompasses a systematic approach to evaluating products, services and processes to ensure optimal quality, application of evidencebased practices, enhanced safety and cost effectiveness.
In the current economic and industry environment, healthcare leaders face a two-fold challenge. On one hand, they need to confront escalating labor, supply chain and operational costs. On the other, they must grapple with diminishing reimbursements. As such, value analysis emerges as an essential tool for promoting efficiency while maintaining a focus on the human aspect of healthcare.
And while value analysis can be applied to a wide spectrum of supply chain and clinical integration scenarios, perhaps its most pertinent application in healthcare is supporting initiatives aimed at reducing care variation. Care variation drains resources and exposes organizations to the risk of deviating from evidence-based guidelines. For this reason, strategic plans often address it.
“I can’t think of a better discipline to spearhead that work,” Smith said, noting that reducing costs and variation in outcomes for certain diagnoses is a prime use case for value analysis, thanks to its systematic approach in determining whether clinicians and care teams follow the same process every time.
A key consideration must be kept in mind, however: value analysis teams and the clinicians participating in them must be given the time, resources, and access to data and information that they need to accomplish this goal.
“At GHX, a huge part of our mission as an organization is to help create data efficiencies and free up resources so people can do more meaningful work,” Smith said. “We want to move people from transactional to strategic in their roles. Since we can automate a lot of those transactional pieces for health systems, people can better utilize their skill set. Nothing speaks louder than making sure your stakeholders have the resources and the time to do this work.”
Accelerated technology adoption is fueling the need for value analysis
Health systems are investing in innovation to stay competitive and to meet patients’ evolving expectations. But as they invest precious dollars in acquiring new technologies — at a time when many are facing lagging operating margins — they need to critically assess whether their investments truly benefit the patient and enhance the clinician experience.
“We don’t have tolerance for risk in healthcare, so organizations really have to understand how a new product or tool is going to impact patients and staff,” Smith said. She cited GHX’s Lumere consulting service, which supports organizations’ strategic sourcing initiatives and evaluates potential safety concerns before new technologies are piloted internally for validation — ultimately helping to drive savings.2 “That’s a much faster way than bringing something into your hospital and having to evaluate it hands on for 12 or 14 weeks before you can understand the potential impact,” Smith said.
Addressing disruptive technology and policy shifts
With the healthcare landscape changing due to technology, regulatory policy and other factors, value analysis is a useful tool for leaders looking to improve their organizations’ financial standing and ensure that investments are optimally targeted for maximum effectiveness, timely implementation and cost savings.
“Value analysis requires following a consistent process, understanding policy changes and pulling in the right stakeholders,” Smith said. She emphasized the importance of collaboration and stakeholder engagement in value analysis, along with continuous quality improvement. To illustrate the importance of collaboration and broad engagement, Smith gave an example of what might happen when organizations fail to engage all relevant stakeholders in the validation of new products or processes — a core tenet of value analysis work.
A health system was revisiting its total joint replacements contract and had to factor in new weight considerations for surgical trays. However, because this organization didn’t involve staff members who were responsible for implementing Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations, the organization overlooked including the proper requirements in the contract, which unnecessarily delayed the work. “You think about that and how much time it takes, the disruption to patient care — we would have understood that upfront had we involved the right people in that project,” Smith said.
Growing & meeting demand for dedicated value analysis teams
The centrality of value analysis in healthcare’s new era of financial and regulatory pressures is irrefutable. “I think of value analysis as the hub in the wheel — all other clinical, supply chain and business entities are the spokes,” Smith said.
Considering this, the role of value analysis professionals is (or should be) taking on even greater importance. “Value analysis professionals understand how to run a multidisciplinary meeting and how to look at data both on the supply chain side and on the clinical side,” Smith said. “They know how to marry those two and have a conversation with clinical end users that can move the needle in the right direction.”
Smith acknowledged that some healthcare organizations lack in-house value analysis professionals, partly because they simply do not understand why this is a critical role to hire for in the first place. But she observed that this is changing; decisionmakers are increasingly aware of and embracing the strategic role that value analysis can play in healthcare operations.
This evolution, she said, gives her hope. “What excites me is that we are moving in that direction, and healthcare organizations are really understanding the value of bringing those teams together and doing that higher-order work.”
Keeping value analysis front and center
In today’s challenging, value-centric healthcare environment, value analysis is a concept that is appropriately receiving more attention. The core principles include comprehensive evaluations of products, technologies and services; a zealous focus on cost management; patient-centered care; collaboration and stakeholder engagement; and continuous quality improvement.
Crucially, value analysis helps healthcare organizations make more strategic, data-driven and informed decisions. In light of today’s cost pressures, regulatory factors, new technologies and other disruptions, this discipline has never been more important.
To further explore the important role of value analysis, GHX and the Association of Healthcare Value Analysis Professionals (AHVAP) have jointly conducted a survey of value analysis professionals to gain insights into the current state of the profession and identify potential knowledge gaps. Find the survey results in this revealing whitepaper, which offers valuable insights for the trajectory of this critical work.
1 https://ahvap.memberclicks.net/assets/website-images/AHVAP%20Position%20Statement-VA%20as%20Specialty%20Final.pdf
2 https://www.ghx.com/clinical-integration/