Building hospital pharmacists’ understanding of VBHC

Context

A business school specialising in training healthcare professionals wanted to offer an advanced module on Value-Based Health Care (VBHC) for hospital pharmacists.

The aim was not to introduce yet another theoretical concept, but to:

• make VBHC understandable and actionable for pharmacists
• anchor it in their day-to-day reality (medicines, devices, supply circuits, procurement, appropriate use)
• give them concrete tools to contribute to the value of patient journeys

The audience was made up of experienced pharmacists, already engaged in clinical, logistics or management roles within healthcare organisations.

Our approach

We designed and delivered a one-day training course, structured in two complementary parts.

1. Morning — A targeted conceptual framework

Rather than an academic presentation of VBHC, we worked on:

• the fundamental principles of VBHC translated for the role of the hospital pharmacist
• the place of medicines and medical devices in creating (or destroying) value
• the pharmacist’s specific levers for action in patient journeys (appropriateness, safety, coordination, avoided costs)
• the limitations of traditional indicators and the value of a reading focused on patient outcomes

The aim: to provide a clear framework, free of jargon, enabling participants to position themselves within a VBHC approach, even without a formal institutional project.

2. Afternoon — Case studies adapted to the field

We then designed two original case studies, specifically adapted to the reality of local hospital pharmacists.

These cases were not about finding a “right answer”, but about training participants to:

• read a patient journey through the lens of value
• identify where the medicine or device plays a structuring role
• analyse the tensions between quality, safety, organisation and costs
• formulate realistic improvement hypotheses, led by the pharmacist

The cases were worked on in small groups, then discussed collectively, with an emphasis on:

• the VBHC mindset
• the ability to make the case to doctors, management or buyers
• moving from intuition to a structured logic

What we delivered

• A tailor-made training course, adapted to the local context and to the hospital pharmacist’s profession
• Specific teaching materials, distinct from “generic” VBHC training
• Two original practical cases, designed to be reusable with other cohorts
• A visible increase in skills in reading patient journeys, the pharmacist’s contribution to value and the ability to engage with the other stakeholders in the system

Observed results

At the end of the training:

• participants expressed a better understanding of their strategic role in a VBHC approach
• VBHC came across not as an abstract model, but as a useful decision-making framework
• several participants identified concrete ways to develop their professional practice

A recurring piece of feedback was:

“This is the first time VBHC has spoken directly to our profession.”