I invited readers to share their thoughts and memories about Neal Patterson following his death… As an EHR veteran for 20 years, I've always felt that Cerner was a “good guy” in the emerging market. (Judy Faulkner) Neal Patterson was controversial in and out of Cerner. It wasn’t easy to sell clinical applications to CFOs who ruled IT back in the 80s and 90s, yet Cerner always prevailed. His vision that eventually the revenue cycle would become subservient to the core of patient care, where the patient is treated and where medical knowledge resides, proved true as the industry moved to his vision allowing Cerner to become a dominate healthcare companies in the world. While Neal was a tornado of a businessman, he not only leaves the legacy of Cerner, but also leaders who spawned out of Cerner to run many of the major corporations in our industry - maybe more than any other healthcare company. I’ve met many of those leaders and they all have the same get-it-done, make-no-excuses, grit that Neil fostered in them in building the culture of Cerner. (Ivo Nelson) I got involved with our Cerner EMR Committee at the start of my career, and worked on Cerner pretty happily for 15 years. Because of his amazing leadership, Cerner will be a place where I am proud to be for another 16 years. I remember when Neal started Cerner. (Cynthia Porter) I bumped into Neal at the Cerner Health Conference one year and made him laugh with my impersonation of an Irish presenter at CHC. As a Cerner customer, I had the opportunity to meet Neal on several occasions. Condolences to Neal's family and the entire Cerner family. I interviewed with Neal for my start at Cerner in 1990. (Michael Silverstein) With a heavy heart, I express infinite gratitude for being in the Cerner family. (Jean Scherschel) I started working for Neal I the early years of Cerner. I am proud I worked for Cerner and was led by a man I must say impacted more people to be better and accomplish more than any other man I've personally met. His imprint is upon so many other companies because of the leaders he and the Cerner team built. Condolences to his family and the entire extended Cerner family. RIP and my condolences to his family and all Cerner employees. (Ken Boyett) I have had the opportunity to be both a client and an employee of Cerner. Cerner is the company that I measure all other vendors against. I hope Cerner continues to challenge the status quo and move us to new heights. The recruiting program at Cerner Corporation has brought scores of talent into our industry. The Cerner jumpstart program was a constant feeling of drinking from the fire hose. By changing Cerner, he inadvertently changed all of his competitors who designed, developed and sold hospital information systems – whether we knew it, or even liked it, we became better vendors because of Neal. I worked at Cerner for a brief time and everyone always referred to him as Uncle Neal. When the news of his passing was made public, I received at least 10 text messages among my Cerner friends- all of us in shock. Did you know that Cerner requires all new staff to receive orientation in Kansas City no matter where their home base is? Kansas City is a different place because of Cerner and Uncle Neal. Even though I only got to meet him twice during my 14 years at Cerner, he was a daily inspiration to me and helped me get some very tough days. He just could have not been nicer, and even remembered that I had told him that my wife regularly utilized Cerner programs in her management job at a local hospital. I have infinite gratitude to my Cerner family and remember my time there fondly. Building Cerner from a meeting on a park bench with friends Cliff and Paul and idea born on the back of a napkin, very few CEOs can lay claim to Cerner's shareholder ROI over the years. I met him when he was taking the young lab IT company to a new level with an inpatient system and Cerner was installing it in a brand new hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland. We made an attempt to buy Cerner after that -- you can imagine how long it took him to turn us down. Neal built a great team -- the Cerner culture is one of a strong sales culture backed by execution and delivering. The people I've hired out of Cerner know how to get things done. Look at the tremendous same store sales record Cerner has had with its customers over the years as a testament. I had the good fortune of working for Cerner for 16 years, half of it in the early days. The world is a much better place because of Neal Patterson and Cerner. It was an honor to have had the pleasure to know him, to have been a proud member of the Cerner family, and watch him build a formidable legacy which will continue to unfold far into the future. (Mark Edelstein) I never worked for Cerner, but as a business partner of Cerner's many years ago, I was in a handful of meetings with Neal, always a small group of four or six. (Jim Hall) All of us who worked in the Cerner family learned from Neal Patterson's passion, drive, and vision. If you don't have a Neal Story or two (even if handed down), you didn't work at Cerner. His legacy isn't just Cerner, but also the leaders he created that went on to lead many other companies -- creating a much wider AND generational impact. (Cynthia Davis) Though we met only a couple times -- in the Cerner Vision Center when I was a much younger Cerner implementation project manager -- your enormous Midwestern presence in those meetings made an endless impression on me. From labs, to hospitals, to health systems, to integrated delivery systems, CINs and ACOs and National Delivery models they and all the leaders who grew up in Cerner (the list is too long to list here) brought so much energy and commitment to making things better for patients, people/employees, and now consumers. My best wishes to all those in his family at home and all those Cerner family members who shared their lives with him. We will not disappoint you! (Alan Portela) Neal's Cerner was an adventure ride unlike anything Disney had ever imagined. My hope is that we (not just Cerner, but this industry) continue to do what is right for the person, the patient … us.
