Are your value analysis studies taking too long?  You probably have heard the old  song “Endless Summer”. This song reminds me of the song played at many value analysis team meetings across the country. You may have heard this tune at your own value analysis meetings as well: Endless VA Studies! 

In my 27+ years as a coach and facilitator of value analysis teams I have observed that the one challenge value analysis professionals experience is getting their VA studies accomplished quickly and efficiently. This quickness and efficiency will have a positive impact on your hospital’s bottom line.

To assist you with this challenge, here are five of my best practices I teach teams that have helped speed up any and all VA studies:

Plan Your Studies – There is an old adage in the business world “A Business with No Plan is a Plan for No Business.”  I think this sentiment applies to value analysis in the sense that a value analysis study with no plan is a plan for no savings or quality improvements.  Therefore to improve your outcomes you must set goals for your VA study along with a detailed action plan. Remember: A VA study plan is always written and then discussed with your team leaders to improve it. Most importantly, you need to update your team members as to your progress against your plan frequently for feedback.  Your plan does not need to be elaborate but it should be easy to understand, thorough and constantly updated as well.  In doing so, you won’t need to tax your brain trying to remember the little details or forget important action steps.

Get it Done in 60-90 Days (2 to 3 Months!) – This is one of the most important aspects of any value analysis study. Setting a due date for studies so you don’t suffer the endless study syndrome.   Let’s face it, your project managers will not like making a time commitment at first, but it is a commitment that will be worth its weight in gold once you make it a best practice.  We have found that 60-90 days is a reasonable timeline for just about every type of study in your healthcare organization, especially if you follow the advice of step-1 above.

Stop “Winging It” – In this day and age would anyone be the project leader on a LEAN Management or Six Sigma Team without having been trained as a Green Belt (or a Black Belt) in the disciplines that are deemed best practices?   Well of course we wouldn’t. Yet we take for granted the fact that value analysis is a process and system that is very similar to LEAN and Six Sigma and does require extensive training and a thorough understanding of the best practices of value analysis in order to be highly effective at meeting your savings and quality goals.  Training is the key to your success; don’t ignore the incredible advantage it will give you.  I guarantee you it will make your value analysis studies faster, better and more timely with advanced VA training.

Track Your Project Managers Study Process – This goes hand in hand with having an action plan, but it is very important that you track every aspect of your value analysis studies especially if you are a VA Coordinator or a VA Team Leader.  You MUST know the status of each and every VA study if you are to avoid the endless study syndrome.  At every team meeting you should have your VA Project Managers submit a progress report which would require them to update the team on what was accomplished from your last meeting.  You may get some push back on this idea. But really how hard is it to fill out a Word template to say that this is my progress since last meeting and I did A,B,C and D, as well as, to report that I will be doing E, F and G by next meeting. It’s a simple one page task all team members can do! 

Don’t Let One Person Do All the Leg Work – This is one of the biggest mistakes Value Analysis Coordinators, Managers or Directors make who do all the leg work on all their hospital’s VA studies. If you allow this to happen your VA Team isn’t really a team but instead is a steering committees whose members are asked to makes decisions or give input on a hospital’s value analysis projects without getting their hands dirty. This isn’t a productive way to do business! 

Let’s face it, the number of VA studies that can be accomplished by one VA Coordinator, Manager or Director pales in comparison to the number of studies that can be completed by a value analysis team with 10-12 members who all take on one VA study each.  An outstanding VA Coordinator, Manager or Director could probably work on 4-6 studies at a time but if you can double or even triple your savings yield through real teamwork your VA study productivity will explode.