Value Analysis Leadership Interview: Winning with a Clinically Integrated Value Analysis Process

With Suzanne Smith, Solutions Advisor, Lumere a GHX Company, and Kerry Lepage, Clinical Nurse Leader and Director of Surgical Services at MaineHealth

HVAUM: How did both of you get into roles within the healthcare supply chain and, more specifically, value analysis?

KP: I started in an academic hospital in 2005, actually the same time that Suzanne started her role as a value analysis nurse. It all began with initiatives involving clinicians who were asking for specific products and many times were expensive, sometimes they were new on the market. This also coincided with hospitals and health systems looking to save money in a big way. In working with Suzanne and her value analysis team, we brought this all together and started an amazing partnership. This partnership and teaming was highly successful for many years and we have seen the full spectrum of value analysis from the simple and straightforward to the highly complex and everything in-between.

SS: My story is kind of funny. I had been an oncology nurse for many years, and I wanted to do something different. People had told me my whole life that I was really good with numbers. I wanted to be home more with my children, and I wanted a more normal schedule because as you know, nurses work weekends and holidays. This VA job appeared, and I said to myself, I think I can do this. I had to convince people that I could do this job, even though I had no experience. And the job was to be the first value analysis nurse for a health system and then grow the program. The person who hired me said, “Suzanne, this is not for the faint of heart.” And I said, “You are talking to an oncology nurse. I know all about things that are challenging and difficult.” The job was difficult in a different way but then again, here I am 25 years later.