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Savings
Beyond Price -Weekly E-Zine-
September 29, 2005
Greetings!
As I touched on
last week, in my article "Back to Basics - Forward to Savings",
many sports teams have just finished up their pre-season camps
and are their seasons are in full swing. We know there is
no pre-season for the Supply Chain Professional...our season is
continuous.
With that in
mind, our focus this week will be on the Team of Value Analysis.
Webster describes a team as: a number of persons associated
together in work or activity (as in football or a debate), but
how does a team work? By feeding, growing and mentoring the
teammates.
 Remember,
you have everything to win (save) and nothing to lose (spend)
with our Award Winning Strategic Value Analysis® System
as your weapon of choice in your battle to manage and control
your supply chain expenses.
Robert T. Yokl, President and CEO
P.S. If your supply chain savings have fizzled,
stalled or are on life support, then
get your savings moving again with our
“no cost –
no obligation”
Supply Chain Performance Survey ($3,500
value) at
strategicvalueanalysis.com/free_survey/index.htm.
By the way, we have had clients tell us that our
“no cost – no obligation”
Supply Chain Performance Survey
“has given them as much information about their
supply chain cost as surveys that would have cost
them thousands of dollars elsewhere”.
So, before we change our mind and start
charging for this survey, I would recommend that you
promptly take advantage of this offer while
it is still NO COST to you!
“Circle
of Confluence” Strategy Includes Clinicians as
Value-able
Team
Members
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Push or pull clinicians in the direction of change
and they will resist. Instead, embrace them and
their ideas and you will increase the opportunity
for their acceptance of new ideas and
recommendations for changes in methods and
practices. |
The concept is to build clinicians’ respect
and confidence in you. This sets the stage for effective
value analysis. We recommend an approach we call the
“Circle of Confluence”, which incorporates
four C’s: Contact, Champions, Communications
and Cooperation.
Contact:
It is crucial that you establish regular contract with
clinicians through focus groups and surveys to understand their
needs and ideas. It takes a little more effort to build lasting
relationships. Identify and be active in committees that are
central to your clinicians’ deepest interest, such as infection
control, the operating room and quality control. To prove you
are committed to their interests, sponsor in-house seminars on
new modalities, procedures and therapies. Grab their attention
with seminars on new products, like silver-coated catheters,
which can reduce their patient’s nosocomial infections.
Champions:
Clinicians respect their peers, so cultivate relationships with
ones who will champion your causes and lead value teams toward
common and mutual goals. For example, the value analysis
process at Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was
hugely successful, in part because physicians themselves lead
their value teams (that is right!).
Communications:
Regular communication is fundamental. It gives clinicians the
opportunity to share and digest diverse ideas. It can also
generate new ideas by putting old ones into context. Publish
newsletters to keep clinicians fully informed about your
philosophies and actions and aware of your sensitivity to their
needs. Ask for the opportunity to present new programs and
initiatives at medical staff meetings and luncheons. Most of
all, truly listen when clinicians tell you about their
concerns and problems. Then act to resolve them.
Cooperation:
By serving and working with clinicians without expecting
anything in return, you will build lasting alliances. For
instance, lead the way to facilitate capital equipment requests
and resolve product and quality problems. Combined with
contact, champion development and communications this will bring
confluence full circle and enable cooperation on common goals
and challenges.
The circle of confluence is a continuous process, not a one-time
event. Keep the loop closed by continuing to build on the four
C’s and you will reduce your clinicians’ fear of change and gain
allies in your fight to manage and control your cost and
quality.
MAILBOX
I've recently been put in the position of Value Analysis
Coordinator. My teams are functioning great and receiving
much support from the entire hospital, however I can't seem to
get the physicians on board. What do you suggest I do?
A.P.
In my travels throughout the USA, I
frequently ask the question of healthcare executives, “what is
the biggest challenge that you are facing related to cost
management?” the answer is always gaining physician buy-in to
proposals and recommendations. While I agree this is a
challenge for all CEOs, COOs, CFOs, and MMs, we must also
realize that the normal response to any proposed change is
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE! Most healthcare executives, who
believe that they have a great idea to save money, cannot
imagine any reasonable physician opposing it!
This is the misconception that most
healthcare executives have when they propose even a minor change
in products, services, technology or practices to physicians:
That everyone involved in the decision to change will just fall
in love with the idea. In reality, the expectation should be
that they are going to have resistance to the proposed change.
Once this fact is understood and accepted, you then can
realistically prepare and plan for it.
“The key to understanding the human
reaction to change is to understand how important familiarity
and control are to… (physicians) is an astute observation on
human nature” said the Total Quality Newsletter. This quote
opens the window to understanding why physicians will not
approve savings proposals and recommendations without first
resisting ideas. It teaches us that most physicians are
thoroughly satisfied with the products, services and technology
they are using. They are knowledgeable in how the products work
and familiar with any drawbacks or limitations. This
familiarity gives them great comfort. Any change, even a small
one, could give them pain that they want to avoid at all costs.
However, no change is impossible as
the great teacher and researcher on the subject, George S.
Odiorne believed, “most people like those changes they cause to
happen, for they are adapting as they create the changes….” He
further recognized that, “When people participate in making
decisions, they make their expert contribution. Thus, they
often are able to prevent the kinds of errors, which grow out of
ignorance. They also acquire more enthusiasm for the decision,
or at least have some of their serious reservations removed, and
accordingly work more diligently to make the decision work in
practice.” Based on these tenets, if we want our physicians to
change their products, services, technologies or practices then
we must:
-
Have Them
Participate In the Change - One of the basic laws of
change management is that all parties who are to be affected
by the change must participate in the change, thereby giving
your physicians familiarity with the change and some control
over it.
-
Have Them Expect the Change - We can accept even a major
change if we expect it and are prepared for it. This is a
vital ingredient for successful change management. But if a
change is unexpected and inconsistent with our perception,
even small changes can turn into a battle.
-
Have Them
Believe the Change is Necessary - “Sustained, positive
change happens when affected (physicians) can be convinced
the price from maintaining the status quo is significantly
higher than the cost of transition,” says the Total Quality
Newsletter. Therefore, to introduce a change in a product,
service, technology or a practice you must convince your
physicians that the change is necessary, since change will
happen only if your physicians can be convinced that the
change is necessary for their or your organization’s
survival.
In summary, if your physicians cannot see
a good reason for a change, if they are not involved in
the change and have some control over it, then you will
not be able to make the desired change! If you are to be an
effective change agent for your healthcare organization then you
must recognize that no one in your organization will be willing
to make any change if you do not get them on your side through
involvement, prepared for the change and persuaded that the
change is necessary.
If you are
interested in more information on value analysis teams, I recommend that you purchase my “Ultimate
Value Analysis System” which will provide
you with my value analysis team leader and team member selection
guide and how to identify the best value analysis candidates at
www.strategicvalueanalsis.com/ultimatevalueanalysis.htm.
Good
luck,
Bob
Yokl, Sr.
Chief Value Strategist
Strategic Value Analysis In
Healthcare
800-220-4274
bobpres@strategicvalueanalysis.com
P.S. If anyone
else has a burning question that you would like me to answer, please
call or e-mail me and I would be delighted to answer.
There Is Still “Gold In them Thar Hills”
Team Vs
Individual Value Analysis Process
Why using a team approach can
actually save you money...
There is much debate over whether Value Analysis programs should
be a team approach or an individual process. I often hear,
"if our hospital is trying to save money, why should we waste it
on the expenses (salary of those on the team and others,
operational expenses, etc) of the program?
|
…value analysis is not in
the main stream of the buying process;
it takes time, special attention and
talents to conduct a program, and it is
essentially a staff service to the buyer
(Heinritz and Farrell) |
Further, the authors state, "a purchasing agent (or department
head) may undertake the dual role of analyst and buyer, but a
full-scale value analysis program is most effective when
provision is made...for communication and action with
departments (customers) that make the final quality decisions,"
as a team would.
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What does all this mean
to you as a value analysis champion? |
Authorities on the subject believe that since no one
person can know the functions, uses and characteristics of all
products, services and processes purchased and used in an
organization, it makes sense that a team approach would be more
effective in the long run than an individual endeavor. It is
our opinion, after working with both structures, that a blending
of each approach is needed for a successful Value Analysis
Program. A Value Analysis Program is a full-time time activity
requiring hours of uninterrupted research to ensure timely and
productive studies; therefore, it does not fit into the main
stream of the hectic buying process, as Heinritz and Farrell
point out. On the other hand, while the team approach ensures a
synergistic process it cannot coordinate the complex mechanisms
of Value Analysis due to the participants’ time constraints
elsewhere. By blending these two approaches, a Value Analyst
coordinating the program with the team managing the process,
results will be highly organized and systematic…which will spell
S – U – C – C – E – S – S!!
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