MedSpan Musings — Tips for better market research

When conducting market research with the hospital pharmacy department, ensure that the right section is informing your actions.

While some hospital pharmacies limit their scope of practice to their individual hospital, others are responsible for the purchasing and management of drug therapies throughout the integrated delivery system.

• Pharmacy directors — Sets policy for operations, contracting, inventory management, and intra-delivery system distribution. The pharmacy director typical is a voting member of the P&T Committee, thereby influencing product selection.The pharmacy director tends to be the most knowledgeable among his or her staff regarding billing, coding and reimbursement for drug therapy. However, in our experience, the level of expertise in these areas varies between hospital pharmacy directors.

  Integrated delivery systems may have one pharmacy director for inpatient care and another for outpatient care. They report to a Vice President of Pharmacy. Standalone hospitals tend to have one pharmacy director.

• Clinical pharmacists — Are often stationed throughout the hospital. Share drug insights with other clinicians. Develop drug monographs for the P&T Committee. Each clinical pharmacist specializes in one or more disease categories (e.g., cardiovascular disease) or hospital patient care unit (e.g., emergency medicine).
• IV operations managers — Oversees compounding processes and clean rooms. IV operations managers are important respondents for studies involving IV therapies.
• Pharmacy buyers — Work directly with wholesalers and drug companies to execute the delivery system’s day-to-day buying practices.

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Hospital Purchasing: Value Analysis Committees

Since its inception nearly twenty years ago, MedSpan Research has developed extensive experience with the purchasing process at US hospitals.   Although purchasing processes vary by hospital, there are some common themes across the majority of hospitals regarding their purchasing.

In the past, getting physician support could be enough to get your product purchased.  However, with an increased focus on cost savings including reduced product costs in general as well as products that help reduce length of stay and reduced readmission rates, other members of the hospital have an increased responsibility in purchasing decisions.  As a result, various perspectives should be considered when selling a product to a hospital.

At many large hospitals, once there is interest in a new product, it is required to go through a value analysis committee (VAC) for review.  The exact composition of the VAC varies, but typically includes:

 

During the VAC review, a variety of product attributes are examined, including:

• Product cost: upfront cost and the total cost of ownership (such as cost of maintenance, disposables, etc.)
• Potential for cost savings: reduction of procedure cost, reduced length of admission, reduced readmission rates, reduced infection rates
• Quality: ability to achieve desired outcomes, improvement in outcomes compared to other products

The VAC then makes a decision whether to purchase, trial, or reject a product.

Each member of the VAC may place a different level of importance on each attribute and bring a different perception to the table.   Therefore, it is important for a manufacturer of a hospital-based product to take into account how their product can appeal to each of the VAC members.  Manufacturers could consider reviewing their sales strategy and potentially adjust it to target the various members of the VAC in order to better position their product for acceptance in the hospital.

MedSpan Research Pay-For-Performance Case Study

MedSpan Research Pay-For-Performance Case Study http://wp.me/pReqv-m:

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Here’s a MedSpan Research tip!

Clinical pharmacists are a good deal for drug companies’ market research. Consider clinical pharmacists as respondents when needing clinical insights regarding a new drug. Remember that health plan and some hospital-based clinical pharmacists specialize by drug class. Other hospital-based clinical pharmacists specialize by patient care unit (e.g., emergency department, ICU).

2015 Started Out With 89 New ACOs Joining the Medicare Shared Savings Program

89 new ACOs joined the Medicare Shared Savings Program starting January 2015, increasing the total participating ACOs to 424; including the Innovation Center’s 19 Pioneer ACOs. The 89 new Shared Services ACOs added 23,000 additional physicians and other providers to the Medicare Shared Savings Program’s provider network. The Share Services ACOs combined with the Innovation Center’s 19 Pioneer ACOs will serve over 7.8 million beneficiaries.