Cerner, AWS Work to Reduce Patient Re-Admissions and Time Spent Documenting Patient Visits
December 03 2019 - 12:41PM
Cerner Corporation (Nasdaq: CERN), a global leader in health care
technology, today announced its plans to assist clients to further
lower re-admission rates for patients, reduce health care waste and
help cut the amount of time physicians spend documenting patient
visits. At the 2019 Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent in Las
Vegas, Cerner CEO and Chairman of the Board Brent Shafer addressed
some of health care’s biggest challenges, and ways Cerner is
combatting them. Shafer was joined on stage by AWS CEO Andy Jassy
who introduced him to tens of thousands of business and IT
professionals.
“For 40 years, Cerner ushered in health care’s digital age by
moving medical data from paper charts and manila folders into
electronic health records,” Shafer told the audience. “As we enter
into a new era of digital transformation, our work with AWS will
lead a wave of breakthrough innovations focused on making health
care better and clinicians’ work easier.”
Globally, the health care industry spends more than $7 trillion
each year, with the U.S. accounting for nearly half of that spend
($3.5 trillion). The American Medical Association recently
estimated that a quarter of all U.S. spending – nearly $1 trillion
– is wasted on unnecessary follow ups to doctor’s appointments,
overtreating patients and gaps in digital information caused by
people seeking care from different doctors and health systems over
a lifetime. Cerner is working to reduce this financial waste by
leveraging de-identified patient data to help make early
determinations of what is causing return hospitalizations. The
insights that Cerner unveils will give physicians the resources to
make more informed decisions on treatment approaches, thereby
helping reduce patient re-admissions.
As an example, a Cerner client—one of the largest providers of
post-acute health care in the U.S.—recently asked for help
predicting the patients at risk of being re-admitted from a
rehabilitation facility back to the hospital. By applying machine
learning to historical data migrated to the AWS Cloud, Cerner
created a model that helped the health care system reach the lowest
re-admission rate in more than a decade and sent more patients
directly from rehabilitation to their homes.
Earlier this year, Cerner announced its focus on addressing
macro trends in health care, including physician burnout. During
his keynote, Shafer also addressed a challenge many physicians
face, the time it takes to document patient visits. Reports have
shown that physicians spend more than half of their days
documenting patient information. Shafer announced that Cerner is
developing a digital virtual scribe, working with Amazon Transcribe
Medical, to help reduce the documentation burden.
“The digitization of health care has inadvertently caused an
increase in documentation for physicians,” said Shafer. “Working
with AWS will allow us to capture doctor-patient interaction and
integrate it directly into the electronic workflow of the
physician. This new advancement will help doctors and providers
spend less time filling out forms and more quality time with their
patients.”
Cerner’s focus on developing leading-edge technology will help
shape health care of tomorrow. Recently, Cerner reached an
important milestone, it’s 500th issued patent. The new patent,
featuring voice-activated documentation, captures important details
shared between the clinician and patient, further showcasing the
company’s focus on leveraging voice inputs and natural language
processing to reduce the physician’s burden of documentation.
“As we work to transform Cerner, we’re relentlessly seeking
innovation and new ways to deliver faster, more scalable, more
secure solutions to our clients and patients – it’s part of who we
are,” said Shafer. “We live in a connected world and are working
with others like AWS to solve the quadruple aim of health care –
improving the health of individuals and populations while reducing
costs and increasing clinician satisfaction. And it’s just the
beginning of this exciting new venture.”
About CernerCerner’s health technologies
connect people and information systems at more than 27,500
contracted provider facilities worldwide dedicated to creating
smarter and better care for individuals and communities. Recognized
globally for innovation, Cerner assists clinicians in making care
decisions and assists organizations in managing the health of their
populations. The company also offers integrated clinical and
financial systems to help manage day-to-day revenue functions,
as well as a wide range of services to support clinical, financial
and operational needs, focused on people. For more information,
visit Cerner.com, The Cerner Blog, The Cerner Podcast or connect
on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter. Nasdaq:
CERN. Smarter Care. Better Outcomes. Healthier
You.
Media Contacts:
Austin Cozzolino, (816) 786-2154,
Austin.Cozzolino@Cerner.com
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