From system outages at the Department of Veterans Affairs to new partnerships, here are six updates on Cerner's operations, software products and partnerships reported by Becker's Hospital Review in May.
- The Department of Veterans Affairs launched a new Cerner EHR at the VA Central Ohio Healthcare System in Columbus. The implementation is a part of the VA's $16.1 billion effort, in partnership with Cerner, to modernize its EHR systems by replacing its more than 30-year-old software system. This marks the VA's third completed EHR rollout.
- Cerner reported $206.1 million in net earnings for the first quarter of 2022, up 20 percent from $172.3 million during the same period last year. David Feinberg, MD, the EHR vendor's president and CEO, said he is pleased with the company's results.
- The Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed that its Cerner EHR system has been partly or completely unusable at least 52 times since its launch in 2020. The EHR system saw a total of 44 "unplanned degradations" and eight "unplanned outages" between its launch in 2020 and April 26, 2022.
- Cerner has not kept its EHR system online consistently enough to fulfill its $10 billion contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The EHR company will provide the VA with a credit in exchange for failing to meet a minimum level of "uptime," the time during which the system is fully available to users.
- Cerner partnered with Elligo Health Research and Freenome to increase access to clinical trials through its Learning Health Network, made up of 85 health systems, in order to advance early cancer detection. The partnership is the first cancer screening trials available to Cerner's Learning Health Network.
- ChristianaCare will integrate hospital robots directly into its Cerner EHR to anticipate clinician and patient needs and perform tasks without human involvement. The Moxi robot, designed to assist hospitals by making deliveries and performing other non-clinical tasks, will be integrated with the health system's Cerner EHR platform and use AI to identify when nurses will need equipment, supplies, medications and lab tests.