Utilization Management How Triangulating Your Supply Value Analysis Studies Destroys Speculation, Lip Service, and All Other Push-Backs You Encounter By Robert W. Yokl, Sr. VP, Operations — SVAH Solutions
I was working with a client’s value analysis team and one of their value analysis project managers came back and reported that after further review there was no savings opportunity on a hospitalwide product line. We don't need to proceed any further with the study. The VA project manager sited that the nursing units had X-amount on hand, and this met the exact requirements for their testing. It sounded clinically evidenced-based. It was accepted by the leadership of the VA team and the study was closed out. It did not make sense to me though. A little background here: They were conducting this study because the hospital’s utilization had increased by 33% from the previous fiscal year and their patient days had been the same or slightly less than the previous year. How can utilization increase 33% when patient days is flat? That did not make sense, especially since no policy or vendor change had been made in that time period. So, what was it? The good news was that I quickly mentioned this to the team leaders, and they agreed that we needed to reopen this. I went about calculating numbers from a three-pronged approach. By cost per patient day adjusted for CMI, by overall spend, number of units used by patient day, and then num-
Volume 7/Issue 2
Healthcare Value Analysis & Utilization Management Magazine
24
