Clinicians and Value Analysis Professionals Can Drive Product Evaluation Within the Framework of Quality and Safety

By Kelly M. Pyrek

Approaching product evaluation and purchasing through the lens of infection prevention is becoming more common as healthcare value analysis professionals work to help realize clinically driven goals around optimal patient outcomes.

Premier (2020) defines value analysis as “an evidence-based process for healthcare organizations to obtain supplies, services, and equipment. Value analysis drives quality care delivery, safety and outcomes, and factors in total cost.”

This aligns with how the Association for Healthcare Value Analysis Professionals (AHVAP) defines it: “Healthcare value analysis contributes to optimal patient outcomes through an evidenced-based systematic approach to review healthcare products, equipment, technology, and services. Using recognized best practices, and in collaboration with organizational resources, value analysis evaluates appropriate utilization, clinical efficacy, and safety issues for the greatest financial value.”

Experts have previously offered descriptions for the intersection between these disciplines. For example, “Larson and Maciorowski stated that product evaluation should be based on quality, safety, cost, standardization, and service ability; Rockett stated that product evaluation involved the consideration of cost containment, cost-benefit analyses, and productivity, but the ultimate measure of product success was the impact on patient outcomes; and Elliot and Hollins viewed the product evaluation process as the interface between quality care and cost containment, with a focus on scientific and objective principles and information.” (APIC, 2015)

As the healthcare industry evolves from a cost-only driven perspective to one that embraces high-quality supply and service decisions made in a fiscally responsible manner, experts note that institutions' value analysis programs, processes, and decisions “must be structured within a framework of quality and safety,” and must “support the health system’s mission, vision and strategic goals.” Premier (2020) states further that healthcare value analysis programs must be designed to “balance issues related to quality, patient and staff safety, revenue enhancement and reimbursement optimization across the continuum of care.”

This is accomplished through appropriate standardization, pricing optimization, implementation of cost-savings initiatives, as well as identification and elimination of waste, redundancy, and inefficiency.

Some observations about the importance of healthcare value analysis have weathered the passage of time and circumstance, as Halvorson and Chinnes (2009) note, “A structured product evaluation program can have a positive effect on patient care and can contribute to the financial health of the organization. In today’s healthcare environment characterized by unprecedented financial constraints, healthcare worker shortages, shortened hospital stays, and increased reporting requirements by payers and watchdog organizations, the product selection process is increasingly important. Innovation in the medical product field is continuing to flood the marketplace with technology that rapidly replaces mechanical or manual ways of providing care. And although innovation provides an essential health benefit, the healthcare system is challenged to select and evaluate emerging technologies to ensure their cost benefit. These factors underscore the importance and need for robust product evaluation programs and collaboration across all hospital disciplines.”

Read further from the May 2022 issue HERE