The implementation of a Cerner electronic health record (EHR) system at the Department of Defense (DOD) has been suspended over problems with the platform’s usability and interoperability. Cerner president Zane Burke said those reports amounted to “fake news” potentially being spread by one of the health IT giant’s competitors.
During a meeting with Cerner shareholders a day after finalizing a $10 billion contract to replace the EHR at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Burke said he’s “learned the term fake news, a little bit” in regards to stories about the company’s government contracts.
“On one side, there’s been some concern about some of the delivery on the Department of Defense side. I’ll tell you that’s gone incredibly well overall,” Burke said, according to the Kansas City Star. “There were some known elements up front as we rolled out the first three sites. The plan always was to come back and do a remediation of those three sites, do an evaluation and make things better.”
Burke then pinned the blame on an unnamed competitor for being involved in those damaging reports.
“If you had an ax to grind with us and wanted to perhaps keep us from getting to a Veterans contract, and you’re one of our competitors, you might want to use some information negatively. There was some negative information out there,” Burke said.
The report of problems, however, came from within the DOD. An April 30 evaluation first obtained by Politico said the Cerner MHS Genesis platform “is neither operationally effective nor operationally suitable.” It recommended the DOD delay the EHR’s rollout until a complete evaluation is finished and “outstanding deficiencies” are corrected.
Cerner was initially awarded the VA contract because of its existing deal with the DOD and the frequent need for the two systems to share data. No competitive bidding process used, which led to lawsuit from rival CliniComp which was subsequently dismissed.
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John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.