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Did You
Know...?
That Value Analysis Was Developed Back
In the 1940's After World War II as a Way to Find Lower Cost but Higher
Quality Alternative products and methods. This was Due to the
Lack of Material Resources At The End of The War.
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Savings Beyond Price -Weekly eNewsletter
- September 20, 2011
 A
Note from Robert T. Yokl,
President and Chief Value Strategist
I can’t believe how much is going on in healthcare, from
ObamaCare mandates to the new ICD-10 coding upgrade that is
due in 2013. These things are keeping healthcare
organizations working at an accelerated pace. So much so,
that I worry about organizational burnout.
Healthcare organizations are even more susceptible to what
is called an “acceleration trap” than other businesses due
to the Obama mandates (i.e., value-based purchasing, 30-day
readmission denials, accountability care organizations, IT
“meaningful use” dictates and reduced Medicare
reimbursement) that are pushing hospital workers to their
limits. We see this occurring even in our own software,
training and consulting practice where our healthcare
clients are pushing us unremittingly to work even faster so
they can keep up with their on accelerated pace.
The answer to this dilemma is for healthcare organizations
to slow down, take stock, and take a breather. Starting with
your own department, you can begin by asking yourself and
your managers what’s really important that you and they get
done this week, month and year and what can be eliminated.
This would be the first step towards you and your department
breaking free from the “acceleration trap” which seems to be
an epidemic in our industry. Otherwise, you are heading for
a personal, professional and organizational burnout that
won’t be easy to fix. Take a “time out” today, to figure out
how you can keep pace with your demands and workload of
today, tomorrow and in the future.
P.S. If you haven’t checked out our
300+ blog articles
on supply chain best practices, then you don’t know what you
have been missing. It’s a completely indexed supply chain
library of the best and newest ideas on how to save money
and improve your operations in our industry. And the best
news of all is that it doesn’t cost you anything to access
this treasure chest of best practices.
Utilization Management: If Not Now, When?
I can’t tell you have many times I hear from supply chain
professionals who have utilization management on their radar
screen, but they have other initiatives they are working on
(e.g. new MMIS installation, data cleansing initiative, regional
GPO formation, etc.) that are taking precedence. Then six
months or a year goes by and these same individuals have found
other projects or tasks that are again taking priority again
over utilization management. So my question is “if not now,
when?
When does it make good sense to save money on the waste and
inefficiency in your supply streams that are eating away at your
hospital’s profit margins? When is a good time to stop the
leaks in your dike that are negating all of the price savings
you have been working so hard to achieve? When is it the right
time to develop multiple savings sources vs. just one –- price
-- to guarantee that your well won’t run dry?
One of our clients made this leap forward about three years ago
when they decided to make utilization management one of their
primary targets for savings each and every year. They are now
discovering that their utilization savings are almost equal to
their price savings (in the millions) annually. If they would
have decided that the timing wasn’t right for this change in
“mindset”, a change from price only to utilization, they
would have lost this opportunity to increase their savings yield
by more than 84%.
Last week, I talked about the advent of Medicare’s “Value-Based
Purchasing Perspective Payment System” that is going to wipe out
7.25% of your hospital’s profits over a five year period
starting in October of 2012. If you don’t develop new savings
sources (e.g. utilization management) how then are you going to
meet this new, even bigger, challenge head-on? The question
then is not “if” your hospital will attack your utilization
misalignments, but “when” There is no other right answer to this
question.
Warmest Regards,
Robert T. Yokl
Chief Value Strategist
Strategic Value Analysis® In Healthcare
Bobpres@strategicva.com
1-800-220-4274
Your Partner In
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