UPMC and Cerner Announce Long-Term Partnership; Pittsburgh-Based UPMC Health System Will Use Entire Cerner Catalog Across More Than 17 Hospitals

Business Wire, Jan 31, 2001

Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers

KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 31, 2001

Cerner Corporation (Nasdaq:CERN), the leading supplier of clinical and management information and knowledge systems to more than 1,400 healthcare organizations worldwide, today announced that UPMC Health System in Pittsburgh has selected Cerner's HNA Millennium(R) suite of integrated clinical and financial systems as the foundation for implementing their vision for the future of healthcare in western Pennsylvania.

Under the agreement, which was completed in December, 2000, UPMC will have access to the entire catalog of Cerner applications. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

UPMC Health System, one of the largest nonprofit healthcare systems in the country, is the leading integrated healthcare delivery system in western Pennsylvania, and the largest healthcare system in the state, with 17 hospitals and 23 affiliated hospitals. The agreement represents a major expansion of UPMC's existing relationship with Cerner.

UPMC will use Cerner's HNA Millennium applications to integrate the patient experience -- extending from the large academic medical center to the regional hospital to the doctor's office and into the community.

"We view information systems as a business necessity," said John Paul, UPMC's executive vice president and chief operating officer. "UPMC is committed to dramatic improvements in patient safety, operational efficiency and cost reduction. Our partnership with Cerner will clearly help us achieve those goals."

"We needed a cohesive approach to managing clinical information with a single, common navigation route across a large system and into our patients' homes," he continued. "Healthcare organizations must have prompt access to the information needed to deliver the best care available. Whether it resides in the lab or the radiology department, a hospital or a physician's office, we need to access that information at the point of care. Cerner's integrated applications and services will help us achieve that end."

"An integrated and seamless system-wide electronic heath record will provide UPMC with the decision support and business intelligence needed to make consistent and appropriate patient care choices," added Paul. "We will also be able to use the overall clinical data to identify best practices and promote preventative care within the UPMC community." The contract extends a relationship with UPMC which began in June of 1998 when Cerner first installed HNA Millennium at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, part of the UPMC system, to begin data sharing across the physician practice, inpatient units, and the emergency department. As a means to enable clinical integration across the health system, UPMC developed a strategy with Cerner to implement a single electronic health record (EHR) to cross the continuum of care and span the UPMC Health System, and ultimately, to improve the quality of patient care and increase efficiency within the organization.

"Since the beginning of our relationship, Cerner has demonstrated that their applications and services have the capability to form the basis of an integrated electronic health record," said Dan Drawbaugh, chief information officer at UPMC. "As we expand upon our relationship, Cerner's HNA Millenium products will serve to enable UPMC to accomplish its vision of an integrated EHR across the continuum of care through all business units of the UPMC Health System."

"We are very pleased about the partnership with a prestigious organization like UPMC, their exciting vision for healthcare transformation, and their appreciation of the power of integrated clinical and financial applications," said Neal Patterson, Cerner chairman and chief executive officer. "Our partnership with UPMC is a sign of the future, where healthcare organizations work in close alliance with their technology partners to fundamentally alter the status quo."

"It is particularly exciting because this is an expansion of our existing business relationship, validating the successes we've achieved together in our earlier work," noted Patterson. "It shows that UPMC found significant value in the benefits of the integrated architecture in our HNA Millennium applications."

"Most important for Cerner," added Patterson, "is that UPMC's decision shows that they share Cerner's vision of integrating the delivery of care from the patient's living room, through the doctor's office and throughout the hospitals, while achieving measurable value."

Cerner Corporation (Nasdaq:CERN) (www.cerner.com) is the leading supplier of clinical and management information and knowledge systems to more than 1,400 healthcare organizations worldwide. Cerner's mission is to connect the appropriate persons, knowledge, and resources at the appropriate time and location to achieve the optimal health outcome. The company's vision is to improve the health of communities through innovation and investments in information technology. Cerner strives to transform the healthcare delivery system by increasing the quality of care, improving efficiencies, eliminating medical error and connecting the individual to the system with innovative information solutions. HNA Millennium is Cerner's comprehensive suite of solutions that promote personal and community health management by connecting consumers, clinicians and healthcare organizations into a streamlined, unified single care process. HNA Millennium applications work on a cohesive platform that is open, intelligent and scalable, allowing vital health information to be accessed and shared throughout the healthcare system. Cerner ... we make healthcare smarter. The following are trademarks of Cerner: Cerner, Cerner's logo and HNA Millennium.