Customer Story | Jan 2026
Customer profile:
• A not-for-profit community health system located in Brevard County, Florida.
• Operates four hospitals and is home to the county’s only Level II Trauma Center
Customer profile:
• A 685-bed not-for-profit health system based in Omaha, Nebraska; Affiliated with Nebraska Methodist College
• Oversees operations of two hospitals, two affiliate hospitals, and Methodist Physicians Clinics
Reduced time-to-decision for value analysis reviews across the organization.
Controlled cost without compromising patient care in only 4 years
Reduced unnecessary expenditures in only 4 years
Health First and Nebraska Methodist Health System faced complexities in their value analysis processes, slowing down decision-making and causing incompatibility among key stakeholders. By leveraging symplr Value Analysis, both organizations transformed their workflows, driving faster decision-making, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and achieving greater transparency. The result? Streamlined processes that reduced decision timelines by up to 70% while fostering clinician engagement and organizational trust.
Value analysis—the process of vetting new clinical products while ensuring financial, clinical, and operational alignment—is a critical function for healthcare organizations. Yet, the most effective value analysis processes must be flexible and adaptable, evolving continuously to serve the changing needs of patients, providers, and organizational leaders. Both Health First and Nebraska Methodist Health System discovered this reality firsthand as they grappled with distinctly different challenges that ultimately led them to seek the same solution.
Health First’s integrated delivery network (IDN) faced a fundamental challenge: their value analysis process lacked standardization. The organization relied heavily on manual processes that created silos across departments and left decisions to individual interpretation rather than systematic evaluation.
“That made it really challenging,” shared Cassie Reeves, RN, MBA, System Director of Clinical Strategic Sourcing at Health First. “Because let’s say, for example, when a certain network or different area reviewed a product, you weren’t sure if they were looking at and reviewing the same things you were. Bringing in technology helps everybody get those processes aligned, so that you can trust somebody else’s work and know it was done in the same way to the same standard.”
This fragmented approach created some challenges across the system. Different departments used varying criteria for product evaluation, making it difficult to compare options objectively or ensure alignment with broader organizational priorities. Decision timelines stretched unpredictably as requests bounced between stakeholders without clear workflows or accountability measures.
The manual nature of their processes also meant that valuable data and insights from previous evaluations were difficult to access, occasionally leading teams to restart each new product review. This inefficiency slowed decision-making and at times interrupted the organization from building institutional knowledge that could improve future evaluations.
Nebraska Methodist Health System faced a different but equally challenging situation. Their value analysis program remained static while the organization itself had undergone significant growth and transformation. What had once been an adequate system for a smaller, less complex organization was now a bottleneck preventing effective decision-making across an expanded health system.
“We encountered a lot of friction between providers and leaders,” explained Ellie Kirshenbaum, MSN, RN, Value Analysis Clinical Manager at Nebraska Methodist Health System. “Our previous system was underutilized and didn’t adapt to the increasing complexity of decision-making.”
The organization’s existing technology platform had capabilities that remained largely untapped. Rather than evolving their processes to leverage these features, teams had developed workarounds and alternative methods that created additional complexity. This underutilization meant the health system wasn’t getting full value from their technology investment while simultaneously failing to meet the sophisticated needs of their growing clinical enterprise.
As Nebraska Methodist expanded, the disconnect between their value analysis process and their organizational reality became increasingly problematic. New service lines, additional facilities, and evolving clinical practices all demanded more nuanced, data-driven decision-making than their legacy approach could provide. The friction between providers and leaders that Kirshenbaum described was a symptom of this fundamental misalignment between process capabilities and organizational needs.
To address these challenges, both organizations implemented symplr Value Analysis, a technology-enabled framework designed to streamline product vetting from intake to decision-making.
Health First began by redesigning its workflows to foster cross-departmental alignment. “symplr gave us a replicable structure and framework,” said Reeves. “It standardized our approach, making the entire process more transparent and easier to trust.”
Nebraska Methodist Health System also reimagined its process by incorporating industry-standard workflows while customizing aspects to suit their providers’ needs. “symplr provided a platform that mirrored what the gold standard in value analysis should be,” noted Kirshenbaum. “We blended this with what we knew was essential for our health system.”
Follow these actionable steps to streamline your value analysis workflows and drive better outcomes:
Both organizations leveraged this systematic approach to ensure that intake processes gathered comprehensive, actionable data while avoiding unnecessary complexity. They also prioritized early and meaningful clinician engagement. “That upfront transparency and collaboration were improvements,” said Reeves. “Having the right people involved at the right time made all the difference.”
Additionally, features like dashboards and configured workflows helped stakeholders make informed decisions more expeditiously. Kirshenbaum shared, “We’ve reduced decision timelines from two to four months down to just one to two months. That time savings highlights the need for ongoing workflow optimization—long-term success depends on continually refining processes beyond the initial implementation.”
Through technology-enabled transformation, Health First and Nebraska Methodist Health System achieved measurable improvements in their value analysis processes:
Health First and Nebraska Methodist Health System demonstrate how healthcare organizations can address operational inefficiencies and improve outcomes through strategic use of technology. By integrating symplr Value Analysis into their workflows, they not only reduced decision timelines but also built trust, fostered collaboration, and aligned clinical and financial goals.
Both organizations prove that with the right tools, any health system can transform its value analysis processes into a competitive advantage. “This isn’t just change for the sake of change,” noted Reeves. “It’s meaningful transformation that benefits everyone—our providers, our leaders, and most importantly, our patients.”
Make faster, evidence-based decisions with a clinical decision support system built for transparency, collaboration, and financial discipline.
Your walkthrough includes:
Projected savings grew more than
5×
over two years
10×+
Cost avoidance
doubled
over four years
Top performers realized nearly
growth in cost avoidance
