Savings Beyond Price™
Innovative Supply Savings and Quality Solutions That Work
by Strategic Value Analysis® in Healthcare
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.
Savings Beyond Price -Weekly eNewsletter - Jan. 30, 2008
Robert T. Yokl
President & Chief Value Strategist
Greetings!
Budget Busting Ideas!
When I look at the cost of the products, services and technologies we are buying in healthcare it’s easy for me to equate them to BMWs: expensive, high-tech and feature rich! But do we really need BMWs to get the job done?
Or, can we get to where we want to go with a Tata “Nano” for $2,500? The “Nano”, who some call a budgetmobile, has no radio, power steering, power windows, or air conditioning. It only has three instruments on the dash, a single windshield wiper, a belt-drive transmission, no trunk and a 30 horsepower motor engine. In brief, it gets you anywhere you want to go, and almost as fast as the BMW, when you consider that all countries have speed limits.
Simply stated, we all need to search out budget busting ideas similar to this one just to keep our supply chain ship afloat. For instance, one of our hospital clients buys every “generic” product (i.e. suture kits, wound care, chemicals, etc.) that she can source that will functionally provide her with the utility and features that will get the job done – no more, no less. This is one of the reasons why she has the lowest total supply cost in her region. You need to do the same!
No longer can we accept the extremely high cost of the products, services and technologies we buy. We must seek out and uncover budget busting ideas to drive down our supply cost from acquisition to disposition, because price savings are slowly, but surely disappearing from our radar screen.
Supply Chain Hall of Fame: I just read about a new healthcare educational organization worth noting called the Bellwether League (www.bellwetherleadgue.org) that has as one of its missions to recognize its first group of supply chain honorees (or heroes) in March 2008, its second group in October 2008, and annually thereafter in October, for their contribution to the healthcare supply chain. You might want to call this honor the “Supply Chain Hall of Fame”! As you know, supply chain managers are the unsung heroes of healthcare, whom without which nothing would happen in a healthcare organization: no operations, no patient care, and no revenues! This little known fact evades most people when they think of what material managers really do. So, if you would like to be a sponsor of this organization or have a candidate for this honor, please contact by e-mail its co-founder, Rick Dana Barlow at rickdanabarlow@wingfootmedia.biz or call Rick at 847-466-7425 for further details.
It’s just that simple!
Your Partner In Savings Beyond Price!
Robert T. Yokl
President & Chief Value Strategis
P.S.There is only 3 more days to claim your Early Bird Rate and save $211 on our “Certified Value Analysis Leadership Training™ Program” to be held on March 11-13, 2008. Otherwise, you will need to pay full-price for this event after February 2nd!
Why You Need to Educate Your Docs, Before Your Sales Reps Do or You Lose!
“Over $1 Billion Spend Annually by Your Vendors to Educate Your Docs”
Did you know that your vendors pay for most of the continuing education courses your doctors take throughout their careers? Or, that your docs get hooked on “free” samples from your sales reps much like your typical street dealer employs on the corner when he’s selling crack? The first sample is free, then you pay, then you get hooked.
This is the state of your doctor’s education today, but you can change this paradigm if you educate your docs, before your sales reps do. If you choose not to, then you lose! I have found this to be the situation in my own career as a MM and consultant. When I took the time to educate my docs formally or informally about any given issue, in most cases, they responded positively to my message, and sometimes the docs even become champions for the cause I was promoting at the time.
Here’s the secret! Docs don’t have time between cases, seeing their patients, putting out fires and tending to their family obligations to educate themselves on what ALL the facts are on the products, services or technologies they are buying or requesting. If your docs only hear one side of the story from your sales reps about the efficacy of their purchases then they don’t have ALL the facts to make an informed scientific decision about them. It’s your job to give them all the FACTS!
You can provide this vital information to them in many ways. For example, you could post on your surgeon’s and medical staff lounge bulletin boards or even plaster it in their dressing rooms, articles about how medical device manufacturer’s profits averaged about 23% last year, while hospitals’ profits averaged only about 5% for the same period. That might get some of your docs thinking about who’s really making ALL the money in healthcare – wouldn’t it?
Or, you could host monthly “Luncheon Seminars” in your operating room lounge for your surgeons to educate them on the supply chain issues they need to know about. One such seminar could be, “The Legal Implications of Bringing Loaner Equipment into the Operating Room!” I’m sure your surgeons never think about, but this could cost your hospital a million dollar lawsuit from their negligence.
In a nutshell! You need to educate your medical staff to “just say no to sales reps”, when they don’t have all the facts to make a knowledgeable decision about what they are thinking about buying. But this can’t happen, unless you give your docs the rest of the story before your sales reps do.
Integrating Supply Six SigmaTM Into Materials Management
Feburary 13, 2008 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm EST
Planning and Implementing a New Way to Manage Your Supply Chain Operations
SVAH will share with you our strategies and insights that will allow you to start to utilize Supply Six SigmaTM and show you how you can begin to integrate this powerful quality and savings strategy into your everyday operations.
What You Will Learn:
How to Get Organize for Supply Six SigmaTM
How to Develop Your Plan for Supply Six SigmaTM
How to Define Your Unique Six Sigma Attributes for You and Your Supply Chain Organization
How the Supply Six SigmaTM Process Will Work For You (Examples and Case Studies)
Which Tools Will Work Best for Your Supply Chain Operations
Feburary 13, 2007 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm EST
Webinar Leader - Robert T. Yokl, President/Chief Value Strategist Strategic Value Analysis in Healthcare
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