KANSAS CITY, Mo. and FORT ATKINSON, Wis., May 4, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerner Corporation (Nasdaq:CERN) announced a strategic partnership with Fort HealthCare, an integrated hospital and health system in Fort Atkinson, Wis., to create a connected health community. Fort HealthCare will work with Cerner to improve the quality of care and make care processes more efficient for more than 120,000 residents in the organization's service area through the use of Cerner Millennium® solutions. By connecting physician offices, clinics, employers and consumers in the community with the hospital, Fort HealthCare can provide an integrated healthcare system that is tailored to the needs of its communities.
The hospital is an acute and sub-acute care facility and will use Cerner® solutions to automate processes for ambulatory surgery and specialty clinics, the birthing center, cardiac rehabilitation and emergency services, including urgent care. Fort HealthCare will implement more than 20 Cerner solutions in addition to a wellness and chronic condition management program that will reduce the costs of treating conditions and improve health outcomes.
"Our alignment with Cerner will not only accelerate our path to achieving 'meaningful use' but will ultimately allow us to achieve our quality objectives," said Michael Wallace, Fort HealthCare president and CEO. "This enhanced collaboration will help us achieve strategic initiatives while positioning us as a leader in delivering patient-focused quality care that encourages wellness management as opposed to episodic care."
Fort HealthCare will use the unified Cerner Millennium architecture to advance the digitization of individual electronic health records (EHRs) to meet the needs of care providers, support professionals and healthcare consumers. This new system will improve the patient experience by providing them access to their health information and will benefit providers by supplying them with a more complete picture of patient information. This access to relevant, integrated clinical information allows providers to communicate instantly with the rest of the patient's care team and enables them to make the best care decisions possible. Additionally, Fort HealthCare will further enhance the patient experience through services such as e-consultations and condition management.
"In fact," said Wallace, "this is one of the most strategic initiatives Fort HealthCare has undertaken. The Cerner system will provide us with clinical and operational information we've never had. Better information will help us to deliver better care and help us achieve our vision to be the best independent community health system."
In addition to the clinical and revenue cycle solutions, Fort HealthCare will also leverage Cerner's new IT management services. In 2009, Cerner launched a new business unit, called Cerner ITWorksSM to create a deeper, strategic alignment with its client partners. Cerner ITWorks is a service Cerner offers to manage Cerner and non-Cerner solutions within a client organization. By taking the back-end maintenance and upgrade burdens off of the client IT teams, not only does the client benefit financially, but it allows the IT teams to focus solely on provider support in a real healthcare setting rather than "backstage."
Fort HealthCare will utilize the Cerner ITWorks service to achieve the best clinical and business ROI from technology investments and to leverage technology as a strategic asset to drive and achieve business and clinical goals.
"Cerner ITWorks servicesallow us to take on a bigger role in the Fort HealthCare IT department to help them drive efficiency, performance and quality, while also creating a closer strategic alignment," said Trace Devanny, Cerner president. "Our model for managing IT departments allows for better value through improved quality, safety and efficiency. This partnership will allow Fort HealthCare to maximize their use of information technology and leverage Cerner's 30 years of technical and clinical experience."
Cerner Millennium solutions automate hospital clinical, financial and management processes. The Cerner Millennium healthcare computing platform provides secure access to an individual's EHR at the point of care and organizes information to meet the specific needs of care providers, front- and back-office professionals and consumers.
About Fort HealthCare
Fort HealthCare is an integrated hospital and health system that attracts patients throughout southeastern Wisconsin. Fort Memorial Hospital is a modern, fully accredited, acute and sub-acute care facility with 110 licensed beds. More than 100 physicians are on staff. Fort Medical Group, a subsidiary of Fort HealthCare, currently employs more than 50 physicians, nurse practitioners, and other healthcare providers. Fort Medical Group clinics offering primary and specialty surgical care are located in Fort Atkinson, Cambridge, Edgerton, Elkhorn, Johnson Creek, Jefferson, Lake Mills, Stoughton and Whitewater. Other services offered by Fort HealthCare include occupational medicine, rehabilitation and sports medicine, wound care, urgent care, home health, a preferred provider network for employers known as FortCare, and more. Fort HealthCare is a partner in the UW Cancer Center Johnson Creek. Most major health insurance products are accepted. For more information, please go to www.FortHealthCare.com.
About Cerner
Cerner is transforming healthcare by eliminating error, variance and waste for healthcare providers and consumers around the world. Cerner® solutions optimize processes for healthcare organizations ranging in size from single-doctor practices, to health systems, to entire countries, for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, and for the healthcare commerce system. These solutions are licensed by more than 8,500 facilities around the world, including approximately 2,300 hospitals; 3,400 physician practices covering more than 30,000 physicians; 600 ambulatory facilities, such as laboratories, ambulatory centers, cardiac facilities, radiology clinics and surgery centers; 700 home-health facilities; and 1,500 retail pharmacies. The trademarks, service marks and logos (collectively, the "Marks") set forth herein are registered and unregistered trademarks and/or service marks owned by Cerner Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and certain other countries throughout the world. (Nasdaq:CERN). For more information about Cerner, please visit our Web site at www.cerner.com.
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. It is important to note that the Company's performance, and actual results, financial condition or business could differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. The words "will" or the negative of these words, variations thereof or similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: the possibility of product-related liabilities; potential claims for system errors and warranties; the possibility of interruption at our data centers or client support facilities; our proprietary technology may be subject to claims for infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property rights of others, or may be infringed or misappropriated by others; risks associated with our recruitment and retention of key personnel; risks related to our reliance on third party suppliers; changing political, economic and regulatory influences; government regulation; significant competition and market changes; and, failure of the parties to achieve the intended benefits. Additional discussion of these and other factors affecting the Company's business is contained in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes in future operating results, financial condition or business over time.