Dive Brief:
- In a deal unusual for its scope and duration, MedStar Health has signed a seven-year agreement with EMR vendor Cerner under which MedStar will receive not only an expanded enterprise EMR, but also help with streamlining operations, improving care and developing new technologies that support MedStar's plans.
- Under the terms of the deal, MedStar will have access to all Cerner's solutions and services across the health system's 10 hospitals, plus its ambulatory and post-acute network. The health system is the largest provider in Maryland and the Washington, DC region.
- The agreement, which resembles one Cerner struck with Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare in September 2013, includes having Cerner provide an on-site, Maryland-based team to help execute on MedStar's IT goals.
Dive Insight:
While it may be a productive use of MedStar's resources, there's little doubt this is a very expensive agreement, as Cerner wouldn't open the door to all of this technology for anything less than a boatload of money. Few health systems could afford to invest in an enhanced EMR system, pay to have Cerner execs on deck full time and at their fingertips and engage in long-term development projects.
That being said, it seems like a good idea. Having a partnership this close with a health IT vendor is likely to pay off in multiples of what MedStar is spending, at least over time. Working this closely with Cerner is likely to result in a new level of sophistication for MedStar, as well as the development of unique health IT options that few providers have. It may take all of the seven years of the contract for the agreement to really bear fruit, but good things come to those who wait.