The 26 Things You Didn’t Know about SVAH
- Robert W. Yokl(7-years) and Robert T. Yokl (34-years) are both members of Lions Club International (Skippack Lions Club).
- Robert T. Yokl was once the Director of Purchasing for St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.
- Robert T. Yokl established value analysis teams in all of his hospitals and systems where he worked before forming Strategic Value Analysis® in Healthcare in 1987.
- SVAH has trained over 5,426 healthcare professionals in value analysis and supply savings methodologies.
- SVAH Produces the #1 Healthcare Supply Chain Podcast with Over 50,000 downloads/listens to date
- SVAH coined the term “Savings Beyond Price™” in 2000.
- Strategic Value Analysis® in Healthcare was originally named The HCP Group, Ltd. (The Healthcare Professionals Group, Ltd) and is still our corporate parent’s name.
- Robert W. Yokl began his financial and IT career for six years with ADP, the leading provider of payroll, HR and business financial services, before joining SVAH in 1992.
- SVAH is constantly researching and developing new ways for our clients to save more money in less time with less effort.
- Robert T. Yokl was a Hospital Corpsman in the U.S. Navy.
- SVAH published the Healthcare Strategic Value Analysis - #1 Guide to Driving Out Costs Healthcare Supply Value Analysis in 2001
- SVAH introduced the first Value Analysis software to the healthcare industry in 1997 (ValueWare® now web based ValueNetCentral)
- Robert W. Yokl has developed three software programs for Supply Value Analysis (ValueNet), Supply Utilization (Utilizer) and Productivity Management (Perform).
- Robert T. Yokl is a Melvin Jones Fellow for dedicated humanitarian services presented by the Lions International Foundation.
- SVAH was a regional firm until it went national in 1998.
- Robert T. Yokl is a frequent speaker at Local, regional and state-wide AHRMM Chapter Meetings and other healthcare associations.
- Robert W. Yokl is the Immediate Past President of the Skippack Lions Club in Pennsylvania.
- SVAH has clients in 35 States in the United States.
- SVAH has worked with over 456 Hospitals and Health Systems in the U.S.
- SVAH’s Weekly Tip of the Week has been published since July 2001 (going on 9th year).
- Robert T. Yokl was a consultant for 7 years for a national for-profit hospital management company.
- Robert T. Yokl was a contributing editor for Aspens 1986 book, “Product Standardization and Evaluation” book (Edited by Charles Housley).
- Robert T. Yokl was a founding member of the New Jersey Hospital Association Group Purchasing Program.
- SVAH has saved over $413 million for our healthcare organizations.
- Robert T. Yokl was the Director of Materials Management for Huntingdon Medical Center in Flemington, NJ.
- Robert T. Yokl has written over 600 published articles specific to the Healthcare Supply Chain.
Value Analysis is all about SCAMPER
Savings Beyond Price -Weekly eNewsletter – June 24, 2009
Robert T. Yokl
President & Chief Value Strategist
Value Analysis is all about SCAMPER
Greetings,
If you aren’t using the techniques of SCAMPER to boost your value analysis savings and improve your quality, then I have a big savings idea to share with you today. Here’s what I’m talking about!
Value analysis is all about “the search for lower cost alternatives to meet your desired functions (primary, secondary and aesthetic) reliably”. Whereas, SCAMPER is a proven technique to help you reach this goal. That’s because every new idea is just an addition or modification to something that already existed which SCAMPER helps you flush out.
So if you can modify, adjust, or alter a product, service or technology you are buying you will dramatically increase your odds of coming up with new and better ideas that can save your money or improve your quality.
Here’s a mnemonic developed by Bob Eberle to help you remember the SCAMPER concept when you are applying it to your value analysis studies:
Substitute something: Replacing a disposable with a reusable.
Combine it with something: Adding it to a kit, tray or pack.
Adapt something to it: Add fax chips to PCs to eliminate fax machines.
Modify or Magnify it: Reduce the size, volume or bulk of a item.
Put it to some other use: Use gloves for ice packs (it’s been done).
Eliminate something: Removing items from kit, tray or pack.
Reverse or Rearrange it: Don’t use custom packs at all (it’s been done).
Simply put, the SCAMPER mnemonic is all about searching out new and better alternatives to what you are doing and what you are buying now and will force you and your VA teams to change your thought patterns. This in turn will change your thinking about how you can save money or improve your quality. It will open up whole new vistas and pathways that will give you and your VA teams surprising insights and ideas on how to save money in every corner of your healthcare organization.
Your Partner In Savings Beyond Price™,
Robert T Yokl
Chief Value Strategist
Strategic Value Analysis® In Healthcare
1-800-220-4274
P.S. If your value analysis team(s) is in a slump you may want to invest in our two-day on-site advance value analysis training program to move your value analysis teams and committees to the next level of savings performance.
What Happens When You Run Out of Price Savings?
Price savings are harder to find, contain, negotiate or even identify now that everyone (including your vendors) understands and has become highly skilled at how to play the price game. Wouldn’t you agree?
What happens when you run out of price savings, or as I like to say, “What happens when the fish stop jumping into your boat?” At a recent seminar that I conducted a MM’s answer to this question was “Look for a new job”. I don’t think that’s the right answer to this question — do you?
Reality check: Your vendors’ cost for transportation, energy, plastics, etc. (or 80% of the things your hospital buys) will continue to escalate. So who do you think your vendors are going to pass this cost along to?
Yes you got it right – YOU!
I was just talking to one of my major teaching hospital clients the other day who is scrambling to find more savings in their orthopedic and spine implants, but even after benchmarking his cost with us and bidding his implants using our benchmarks as a guide, he only shaved a few percent off his implant prices. By the way, this client belongs to two GPOs and still can’t get better prices even with his own custom contracts on implants
The next day I talked to another client of ours who is the Vice President of Purchasing for a six hospital system who is racking his brain on how to get better prices for his hospitals, when he never had this challenge before. Until recently, he always could find a new and better price savings on any commodity he was purchasing.
What does this all mean to you! If you are betting your career on finding new and better prices for the commodities you buy in the future you are going to be in for a rude awaking – it isn’t going to happen.
On the other hand, if you look beyond price you can make a quantum leap forward in utilization savings that are never ending and are right in front of your eyes just waiting to be harvested.
Dollarize to Save Big
Savings Beyond Price -Weekly eNewsletter – June 10, 2009
President & Chief Value Strategist
Dollarize to Save Big
Greetings,
One of the techniques that we teach in our advance value analysis training programs is to “dollarize to save big” so that you can, for the first time, negotiate out unwanted and unneeded functions and features on your customer’s requested new (or existing) products, services and technologies. This is a powerful tactic that you need to understand and then consistently employ in all of your commodity negotiations with your customers.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about! There was a recent study conducted by J.D Power asking potential car buyers what functions and features they desired in their cars. This was done without showing them the price of these options. Naturally, one of the highest rated features (second on this list) was a navigation system, but when these same buyers were shown the cost of the navigation system ($1,500) their ranking for this option dropped from second to 10th on their wish list.
Why did this happen? Because when you dollarize the functions or features for any commodity purchase you give your customers a REALITY CHECK to make sure that they absolutely, positively need it. In most cases, they won’t select a high price option if they can’t value justify it in their own mind.
Here’s another example? If you would dollarize how many ports you clinicians need in your IV sets ($1.00 each), you will find most clinicians won’t select more ports then they actually need to get their job done. On the other hand, if you ask these same clinicians how many ports they require in their IV set without dollarizing, every one of them will select the maximum amount available. It’s just human nature to ask for more then you really need to give yourself a safety zone to work in.
So, if you want to dramatically reduce the total cost of everything you are buying don’t forget to “dollarize to save big” when you are negotiating with your customers on the things that they say are really important to them. You will be pleasantly surprised at the savings results!
Your Partner In Savings Beyond Price™,
Robert T Yokl
Chief Value Strategist
Strategic Value Analysis® In Healthcare
1-800-220-4274
P.S. Is it time to think about advanced training for your value analysis team/committee? With many hospitals about to start a new Fiscal Year with more challenging savings goals than ever before, you may want to give your teams an added advantage with advanced value analysis training.
Learn From Your Peers with Pride
I just made a presentation (Game Changer: 2009 Recession) at a regional material management association’s meeting last Friday and as always, I possibly learned more than the participants that attended this meeting. This is always the case when you teach any subject.
What I learned at this meeting was how much you can learn from your peers, if you just take time to talk to them. For instance, I facilitated a discussion between the association’s members on ideas for joint ventures between their hospitals or systems in areas that their GPOs don’t cover or have a weak offering. When one of the participants asked if it would be a good idea to joint venture with industries in her region too on energy, maintenance supplies, snow removal, etc., I thought this was a brilliant idea that no one had thought of until she raised the subject.
That’s what learning from your peers with pride is all about! It’s about taking the time to go to your association’s meetings and conferences (regional and national), so that you can talk to your peers about what they are doing, thinking and planning to improve their supply chain management.
There is no better way to invest your time that I can think of to keep you on top of your supply chain game. It’s like having a business support group that is always ready to answer your questions, discuss your problems and give you new ideas to make your job easier and more fun.
Five Myths Vs Facts
Savings Beyond Price -Weekly eNewsletter – June 10, 2009
President & Chief Value Strategist
Five Myths vs. Facts!
Greetings,
Over time we all develop a belief system that is based on our life experiences, biases, and traditions but are these viewpoints myths or are they facts? These collective perspectives or assumptions that we gather over time can relate to our supply chain world as well as our life!
From a supply chain perspective if these beliefs and assumptions aren’t tested, inspected and examined vigorously we could be overlooking big breakthroughs in our supply chain management. Here are five myths versus facts that you should be reexamining in order for you to remove any performance gaps in your supply chain operations:
1. Benchmarking Doesn’t Work
I can’t count the times a MM has told me that they believe that benchmarking doesn’t work because it is inexact science or we are different. By holding this belief, these MMs are missing the opportunity to save millions of dollars annually.
To the contrary, benchmarking is an art and science that has been proven in every industry, including healthcare, to be the best methodology to identify gaps in an organization’s performance. This leads us to search out best practices to fill those gaps that are costing us thousands, maybe even millions of dollars annually.
2. Price Savings are Forever
I hope everyone understands that “nothing is forever”, but too many MMs believe that this truism doesn’t apply to price savings when the facts inform us differently. With few exceptions, hospitals, systems and IDNs are just holding the line on inflation (3.9% for 2008) with their price savings, not beating it. This fact would lead me to believe that MMs should be searching out other sources of savings if they want to beat the inflation rate each and every year.
3. Utilization Management isn’t a Priority
Considering that price savings are slowly disappearing, what better source of new savings (7% to 15%) could there be than utilization (in-use cost)? How then can MMs IGNORE these big savings opportunities by stating that it isn’t a priority? Shouldn’t the highest level of savings available at a healthcare organization, with the best ROIs, be an uppermost priority to every supply chain manager?
4. Value Analysis is all About GPO Contracts
Every time we visit with a value analysis team we find them evaluating their new GPO contracts, with very little emphasis on the waste and inefficiency in their supply chain.
Value analysis ISN’T about GPO contracts; it’s all about functional analysis, which has nothing to do with GPO contracts. When will we get these two disparate supply chain activities designations right?
5. Purchases Services isn’t in our Scope
I was just told again last week by a value analysis manager that he doesn’t believe that purchase services should be in the scope of his supply value analysis program. Then I asked him who did he think should be functionally analyzing these contracts?
The way I see it your department heads won’t, your supply chain department is too busy, and your administration doesn’t even have these multi-year million dollar purchases on their radar screen. That’s why purchase service contracts MUST, in my opinion, be in the scope of your supply chain department and evaluated by your value analysis teams. To do less is to relinquish hundreds of thousands of dollars of savings annually.
These five myths vs. the facts should raise your consciousness to the possibility that all commonly held beliefs and assumptions aren’t always factually true. That’s why you need to challenge not only your own beliefs and assumptions, but those held by others in your healthcare organization that might not pass the test of time.
Your Partner In Savings Beyond Price™,
Robert T Yokl
Chief Value Strategist
Strategic Value Analysis® In Healthcare
1-800-220-4274
P.S. Don’t forget to sign up for this ONE-TIME-ONLY “How to Create, Manage and Maintain High Performance Value Analysis Teams” NO COST webinar on June 17th (Eastern) at 1:00pm (Eastern). This webinar is exclusively designed for those hospitals, systems and IDNs who are seriously looking for new and better strategies, tactics and techniques to take your supply value analysis program to the next level of savings performance.
Focus on What Matters!
I often tell audiences when I’m speaking about “focus on what matters” that early in my supply chain career I delegated ALL of my price related activities to my buyers while I focused my savings efforts almost exclusively on value analysis. Why did I make this decision?
Well, I found early on in my career that it was easy to get the best pricing on everything that I bought if I contracted through my GPO or bid a commodity that wasn’t under a GPO contract. I didn’t need to lose sleep over this important, but very manageable activity any longer.
That’s when I realized that value analysis was where the action, opportunities, and recognition were in any healthcare organization. From that point forward, at every hospital, system and IDN I worked I immediately formed value analysis teams to root out the waste and inefficiency in my healthcare organization’s supply chain.
By doing so, I immediately saved my hospital, system or IDN millions of dollars (beyond price) annually, and gained a reputation as a superb material manager. This reputation wouldn’t have come to pass if I decided to use my skills to shave two or three cents off the pencils I was buying.
More importantly, because of the high visibility my value analysis teams attained in these healthcare organizations everyone in the organization knew us by our achievements (better quality, service and reduced cost). When it came time for my annual pay raise or bonus negotiations my senior management never quibbled about giving me a raise or promotion because they had seen my work first hand in a very observable way.
So if you are looking for more money, more recognition and more promotions in your healthcare organization, I would recommend that you “focus on what matters” – value analysis. And let your price savings become an automatic and systematic task that shouldn’t take much of your valuable time at all.
No Magic Bullet
Savings Beyond Price -Weekly eNewsletter – June 3, 2009
President & Chief Value Strategist
No Magic Bullet
Greetings,
I think that there is a tendency in healthcare for supply chain professionals to seek out a “magic bullet” that will be a quick fix to ALL of our supply chain expense management challenges. But is this really the best path for you to take to improve your supply chain performance?
For years we all thought that the big quick fix was to have high compliance with our GPOs. Then every one thought the road to success was to purchase a new MMIS system to give them high visibility in their supply spend. This was followed by a massive movement by hospitals, systems and IDNs to cleanse their data. Now we all seem to be jumping on the data analytics train as if this is ultimate quick fix to all our supply expense management issues.
This is the road often traveled by supply chain professionals in their search for better performance, but these quick fixes will never sustain long-lasting bottom-line results. If you want to be better than good in your supply chain performance you will need to choose systemic solutions, not quick fixes.
We have worked with numerous healthcare organizations that have employed all of the quick fixes I just talked about, but they still haven’t optimized, institutionalized or operationalized their supply chains’ savings efforts. This is because these organizations haven’t systematized these efforts into a cohesive operating plan, but instead jump from one quick fix to another hoping that this new “magic bullet” will be the definitive answer to all of their supply expense management problems.
It is now high time for healthcare organizations, with limited time, money and resources, to ditch these quick fixes in favor of a strategic, systematic and programmatic performance improvement effort that seamlessly fits into a carefully thought out supply chain expense management short and long-range plan.
This way when a new saving idea, suggestion or scheme comes across your desk you won’t get caught up in quick fixes, band-aids or costly fads that don’t meet your exact strategic or tactical goals and objectives for any given year.
Your Partner In Savings Beyond Price™,
Robert T Yokl
Chief Value Strategist
Strategic Value Analysis® In Healthcare
1-800-220-4274
P.S. Don’t forget to sign up for this ONE-TIME-ONLY “How to Create, Manage and Maintain High Performance Value Analysis Teams” NO COST webinar on June 17th (Eastern). This webinar is exclusively designed for those hospitals, systems and IDNs who are seriously looking for new and better strategies, tactics and techniques to take your supply value analysis program to the next level of savings performance.
How to Create, Manage and Maintain High Performance Value Analysis Teams
Healthcare Supply Chain Best Practices
How to Create, Manage and Maintain High
Performance Value Analysis Teams
Take Your Value Analysis Savings and Quality Improvement Program to a Whole New Level of Higher Performance and Quality Results
Webinar Objectives:
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Evolution of Supply Value Analysis Committees and Teams?
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Where They Came From
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Where They Are Going
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What Works
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What Doesn’t Work
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What Are the Results You Can Expect With A High Performing Value Analysis Team(s)?
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Teams Vs. Committees, Which Works Best?
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What Are the Key Components to a Successful Value Analysis Team?
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Structure
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Strategic Vision
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Management Backing
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Fueling the Savings Fire
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Team Dynamic
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Solid Leadership Model
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Repeatable System
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Strong Reporting
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How Do You Set Up a Win-Win Value Analysis Program/System?
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Convincing Senior Management that this is the Right Way to Go
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Creating A Value Analysis Strategic Plan
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Gaining Peer Participation and Buy-In
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Making it Happen!
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How Do You Manage Team Members with Competing Priorities?
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Lean Management
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TQM
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Six Sigma
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Service Excellence
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Managing Their Departments and Jobs
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Other Special Projects
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How Do You Break Through the Barriers that Hold Value Analysis Teams True Performance Back?
Thursday, June 17th – 1:00pm Eastern
All Registered Attendee’s Will Receive a Copy of the Webinar Slides and Audio Replay at No Cost to You!
PLUS...You Will Also Receive a Copy of SVAH’s Value Analysis Strategic Planning e-Workbook
Strategic Supply Chain Webinar Series Leader – Robert T. Yokl, President/Chief Value Strategist and Robert W. Yokl, VP of Operations, Strategic Value Analysis in Healthcare
Remember…The Webinar May Be FREE But The Information is Priceless
Are You Getting Serious About Value Analysis?
We are seeing a very positive emerging trend in healthcare today: hospitals, systems and IDNs are getting serious about value analysis. The question I have for you is “Are you getting serious about value analysis too!”
For years value analysis was something we told our bosses and colleagues we were doing to make them think we were on the cutting edge of supply chain management. We knew however in our heart of hearts that our team(s) or committee(s) weren’t generating the savings and quality improvements that they could or should be. We knew our team or committee members weren’t attending meetings, that we weren’t getting management support that we needed to be successful and that our department heads and managers too often placed barriers in our path that prevented us from making savings happen.
That was then, this is now! We are now seeing hospitals, systems and IDNs providing formal advanced training for their senior management and value analysis teams in the classic tenets of value analysis, organizing their teams to save and seeking out new power tools to manage, monitor and control their supply value analysis program. They are hiring professional trained value analysis coordinators, managers or directors to manage their supply value analysis program.
Why Now, not then? No hospital, system or IDN, with their dip in revenues due to the recession, can leave a significant 7% to 15% in utilization supply expense savings on the table untouched. In the past this 7% to 15% seemed nice to have, but now is critical to their survival. That’s where value analysis comes to the rescue!
Value analysis, if practiced patiently, fervently, artfully and scientifically is the vital savings engine that all healthcare organizations (large and small) need to make Savings Beyond Price™ quickly happen. But this budding success story won’t materialize unless your senior management, team(s) or committee(s) has the requisite tools, training and executive management support required to create, manage and maintain high performance value analysis teams.
So if your hospital, system or IDN is getting serious about value analysis just remember this important salient fact: value analysis isn’t about establishing a value analysis team or teams and then telling them to GO SAVE MONEY! It’s all about having highly trained, motivated and incentivized VA team leaders and team members that understand, internalize and vigorously apply the six-step value analysis methodology to uncover and then implement any and all savings opportunities for your healthcare organization.
