Health IT company Cerner is one of the largest suppliers of electronic health record systems in the country.
Here are 10 things to know about Cerner.
- With more than $2.67 billion in revenue in 2013, Cerner is the largest independent health IT company in the world. Revenue for 2014 is expected to reach $3.3 billion.
- Cerner is headquartered in Kansas City, Mo. Chairman and CEO Neal Patterson founded the company in 1979, the same year Judy Faulkner founded Cerner's main rival, Epic. Mr. Patterson is known for his passionate, involved leadership style, which lead both to an infamously leaked 2001 email berating the company's managers for lack of effort as well as the development of a culture of very engaged employees that care about the company's work. With an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion, Mr. Patterson is No. 352 on Forbes' list of the richest people in America.
- Cerner EHR systems are used within some of the largest health systems in the country, including Pittsburgh-based UPMC, Indiana University Health in Indianapolis, Phoenix-based Banner Health, Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston and Adventist Health System in Altamonte Springs, Fla. As of February, 532 hospitals have used a Cerner EHR to attest to meaningful use. Additionally, 37 Cerner clients have reached HIMSS Analytics stage 7.
- Cerner consistently receives high marks in independent user satisfaction surveys. However, the company has faced a few lawsuits regarding EHR functionality. In 2013, Cerner agreed to pay $106 million to Trinity Medical Center in Minot, N.D., to resolve allegations purchased software did not function as promised. In 2012, Girard (Kan.) Medical Center sued Cerner for allegedly failing to complete the EHR implementation in time for the hospital to qualify for meaningful use incentives.
- Cerner's client intelligence portal, developed in-house, consolidates data from all the company's sales, consulting, support and service systems to provide Cerner leadership with a comprehensive overview of company activity and provide employees with actionable insights to use during client interactions. The portal, Delphi, helped Cerner earn the No. 11 slot on InformationWeek's list of the top 100 most innovative companies in the country.
- Cerner has acquired several companies over the past several years. In 2011, Cerner acquired workforce management software vendor Clairvia; in 2012, it acquired behavioral health technology vendor Anasazi Software; and in 2013, it acquired population health and patient engagement software vendor PureWellness.
- Cerner was one of the sponsors of a controversial 2005 RAND report that concluded EHRs would reduce healthcare costs while improving patient care. The report was one of the inspirations behind the federal government's EHR incentive programs and led to significant financial gains for Cerner as hospitals rushed to implement EHRs, according to a report in The New York Times. However, in 2013, RAND issued a follow-up to that report stating the previously estimated savings and efficiency gains were overly optimistic and have yet to be realized.
- Cerner has entered into several partnerships as part of its efforts to be a leader in the health IT field. In September, Cerner announced a partnership with Children's National Health System in Washington, D.C., to develop the nation's first research institute devoted to health IT, and in December, the company announced a partnership with Claritas Genomics to develop a scalable laboratory solution for molecular diagnostics designed for next-generation sequencing workflows, aiming to advance the use of personalized medicine across the healthcare industry.
- In October, Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare announced a partnership with Cerner to implement Cerner software in its 22 hospitals and 185 ambulatory clinics. The implementation, currently in progress, will build on Intermountain's clinical and data warehousing capabilities to build one of the most advanced EHR systems in the nation.
- Cerner stocks have risen considerably lately, hitting an all-time high in February. Cerner's results from the first quarter of 2014 are expected to reveal a 10 percent bump in revenue over the same period last year.
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