Children’s Mercy and Cerner Expand Strategic Relationship Focused on Improving Pediatric Care through Technology and Innovation

Children’s Mercy Kansas City, one of the nation’s top pediatric medical centers, and Cerner, a global leader in health care technology, today announced an expanded strategic relationship that will help transform pediatric care in their hometown and beyond through the implementation of leading-edge technology and collaborative innovation.

Kansas City is home to both Cerner and Children’s Mercy, two of the city’s largest employers. This expanded alignment builds on a more than 14-year relationship between the two organizations and cements Children’s Mercy as a showcase pediatric client for Cerner.

“This initiative reinforces our commitment to research, education and finding answers to diagnose and treat complex childhood diseases,” said Karen S. Cox, Ph.D., RN, FACHE, FAAN, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Children’s Mercy. “This is a unique opportunity for us to work side-by-side with our neighbors at Cerner to evolve how care is delivered to the children in our community.”

To leverage the talent and resources of the two organizations, a joint education program will allow employees from different areas of each workforce to shadow one another. Cerner associates will be able to see and learn firsthand how care is delivered at the bedside, while caregivers can go behind the scenes to be immersed in the development process of health IT. It’s a collaboration that aims to accelerate innovation within each organization and throughout the broader world of health care.

A team of Cerner associates will also be embedded at Children’s Mercy, who will work to maximize technology’s impact on patient care by leveraging the expertise of both organizations in the exam room.

“Cerner shares Children’s Mercy’s vision to help children lead long, healthy lives – especially because our own kids and neighbors are their patients,” said Zane Burke, president of Cerner. “Our expanded collaboration creates a deeper bond between our organizations and our people in Kansas City and promises enriched learning and development on the front lines of pediatric health care.”

Children’s Mercy will also implement Cerner’s full suite of solutions, based on the unified Cerner Millennium® electronic health record (EHR) architecture. Consolidating and replacing multiple disparate platforms with a single integrated system will allow operations to be streamlined and provide caregivers with the tools they need to make data-driven decisions at critical points during a patient’s care journey.

For instance, medical devices will be integrated to securely transfer data from bedside devices to the EHR in near real time. More efficient scheduling and billing platforms will also be implemented along with population health management technology designed to help identify gaps in care.

“The electronic flow of clinically relevant information will help improve our physicians’ day-to-day workflow,” said David Chou, vice president and chief information and digital officer at Children’s Mercy. “Having a single source of data provides convenience and improves productivity. More important, it lets our practitioners to spend more time focused directly on our patients and their care.”