Dive Brief:
- Having lost longtime client the Mayo Clinic to Epic earlier this month, Cerner has wrapped up a ten year extended deal with Lubbock, TX-based University Medical Center. The contract extends their already decade-long relationship with Cerner, according to a Cerner press release.
- Moving forward under the new deal, UMC and Cerner will work together to continue their implementation of shared digital patient records, automate clinical workflows in endoscopy and oncology and create a single platform for communications across all three organizations.
- "We see Cerner as a partner that is dedicated to helping us achieve the outcomes we strive for: quality, safety and continuity of care," said Bill Eubanks, UMC's chief information officer and senior vice president in the press release. "Today’s healthcare requires separate organizations to work closely as a team, and in our case that’s UMC, Texas Tech Physicians and [UMC Physician Network Services]. With Cerner, our providers are better able to serve patients across all three entities."
Dive Insight:
There are a lot of Easter eggs hidden in corporate press releases if you know what to look for.
First, let's remember our earlier bet that Cerner would have a good 2015. It didn't start auspiciously, with Epic signing a huge contract with the Mayo clinic to replace all their past platforms (including the one built for them by Cerner) with a singular Epic solution. Kicking off the year with a body blow like that could not have been good for Cerner.
We're betting that after the Epic contract was announced, Cerner gathered their account managers together to execute the mission of locking up all their existing clients to new, long-term deals to prevent what happened with Mayo from happening again with someone else.
Fast-forward to the release announcing the UMC deal: Within the first couple of paragraphs, there are multiple mentions of the length of the new deal and the existing decade-plus relationship they've had with UMC. Add to that, the quote from UMC's Eubanks, extolling the virtues of Cerner’s long relationship with UMC, calling Cerner "a partner dedicated to helping us achieve the outcomes we strive for."
These are not casual drop-ins. These were elements carefully crafted to counter the black eye Epic gave them earlier this year. Cerner wants its longtime clients to know that they want to keep them, and they are willing to go the distance to do so. Look for similar announcements from Cerner and more of their existing client base in the coming months.