I want to add the following. I'm an IT professional. In the course of my professional duties, I'm expected to…
Cerner Closes Siemens Acquisition
Cerner announced this morning that it has completed its $1.3 billion acquisition of Siemens Health Services as announced in August.
Cerner Chairman and CEO Neal Patterson said in a statement, “"By combining client bases, investments in R&D, and associates, we are in a great position to lead clients through one of the most dynamic eras in healthcare. Cerner remains focused on key development areas including population health, physician experience, open platforms, revenue cycle, and mobility. We see these as critical areas of investment to ensure providers can meet growing regulatory demands and control costs, while continuing to improve quality of care."
Cerner says its 2015 revenue will be around $5 billion, its employee count has increased to 21,000, and its annualized research and development expense will be $650 million.
Cerner reiterated in the announcement that it will continue to support Siemens core systems for an unspecified period, with Soarian maintenance guaranteed for 10 years. Former SHS CEO John Glaser has joined Cerner as SVP and a member of the company’s executive cabinet.
Invision and MedSeries 4 customers should sense the urgency.
All the Malvern signage was changed over the past weekend, and the onerous entry turnstiles and intra-building security doors are gone.
In a parting shot, a few Siemens employees in the Healthcare IT division, not in the part sold to Cerner, were laid-off by surprise on January 30.
51 Valley Stream Pkwy was once a proud place. I sense it will be half-empty in a year and the remaining work there will be supporting products on the path to sunset. Sad ending to what was an important place in the HIS world 35 years ago. If only they had built physician billing into INVISION and not separately (and never well integrated) as SIGNATURE, SMS could have been Epic. Oh, and missed huge, huge opportunity with HDX too. Still, big impact on Health IT and the starting place for many in the business.
If you can’t beat them (Epic), buy a huge competitor and hope for the best.