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Kerry and I grew up together in value analysis and at Maine Health.

HVAUM: What sort of insights or value have you gleaned thanks to a greater emphasis on value analysis?

SS: I have learned that, when possible, you really should use evidence when you're talking about value analysis and you're making decisions. It's really important to have that be part of the process. Also, with evidence and data you have to make sure that everyone hears the same thing and sees the same when working towards those challenging decisions. They must be made in the most objective way possible. Plus, I think of value analysis as a problem-solving process because the problem is we have to save money, we have to reduce suppliers, we have to improve quality, we have to bring on a new procedure, a new service line, etc. So that's how I like to think about value analysis. That would be my biggest insight. We're problem solvers.

HVAUM: Can you tell us about a particularly successful strategic sourcing initiative and how it’s delivered value to your organization?

KP: One of the biggest initiatives that Suzanne and I did early on in both of our careers was a glove initiative. It started with patient safety. We were using gloves with powder, and we were looking to convert to powderless gloves. We thought this was going to be an easy conversion. Of course, we found out that would not be the case. There were lots of bumpy roads in that conversion. We made it happen starting with meetings with all the frontline staff. Then, we met the surgeons and then the vendors. We did cross references. We enlisted the vendors to work with the staff and surgeons so they had an idea of what different gloves they could use. This value analysis process took three months. The end results were huge. It ended up being a six figure cost savings as well as meeting the customers’ exact requirements. To this day, Maine Health as a whole is still using these gloves. This conversion wasn't without some difficulties and roadblocks along the way.

SS: This glove conversion was the very first initiative I decided to do in my new value analysis role. I think what this speaks to is really understanding different perspectives and having that cross-functional collaboration when you're doing any kind of a strategic sourcing initiative; bringing in those end users, like Carrie said, showing them the data and the evidence, and talking about why we missed the mark. It turned out to be just growing pains. My advice to those new VA professionals in similar situations is to be brave. Don't give up. I remember being in a room with Carrie and the nursing director at the time, and just being nervous that I had done something wrong.

KP: Let’s talk about another initiative about bone cement savings that was a six-figure savings. We brought in the physicians and showed them the data. We worked with the vendor who shared more information on the white papers. We had our physicians talk to other physicians who had been using these bone cements for years with very good outcomes. The physicians now had good data to support this change and we felt that