Mock Call: Value Analysis Committee Review

The scenario

Karen Odom, Director of Supply Chain and value analysis committee (VAC) coordinator at St. Aldric Medical Center, a fictional 400-bed community hospital. She is polite, organized, and spreadsheet-driven. Her job is to protect the hospital from physician-preference cost creep, so she is skeptical of any request that adds cost or fragments the hospital's existing volume discounts. She respects reps who bring a real economic case and credible clinical evidence, not just a surgeon's preference. She thinks in cost-per-case, contract terms, consignment inventory, and measurable trial metrics — and she will not approve anything on enthusiasm alone.

Two of St. Aldric's orthopedic surgeons have requested the TriAxis Knee System, and Karen has given you fifteen minutes to make the case to her ahead of the committee. The hospital already has a favorable contract on its incumbent knee implant, and adding a vendor risks diluting the volume discounts that contract depends on. Karen's committee reviews roughly forty new-product requests a year and approves few. Your job is to pair the TriAxis clinical evidence with a credible, budget-conscious economic case, propose a measurable trial with a clear structure, address the consignment/inventory risk, and close by asking her to bring a defined trial to the committee for approval — gaining her agreement on that next step.

Expect these pushbacks