Cerner Corp. wins $51 million DOD health contract

Cerner Corp. will supply the laboratory information component of the Defense Department’s Composite Health Care System II. The health IT company won a 10-year, $51 million contract.

Cerner’s Millennium PathNet lab system will deliver the results of lab tests to the online medical records of 9 million service members, their dependents and retirees. The lab system will be used in more than 100 hospitals and 400 clinics worldwide, including those in battlefield and shipboard environments.

“Cerner’s proven ability to provide technology for massive-scale health systems was critical” in the selection of the Kansas City company’s system, said Cmdr. Joseph Granado, a program manager for a portion of CHCS II.

The new system will be installed in three phases, Cerner officials said.

They said it was the company’s largest sale of lab reporting software. DOD has used Cerner anatomic pathology software in its medical labs for a decade.

Faster availability of lab test results will reduce patient waiting time and allow doctors to treat more promptly conditions that are revealed by the lab tests, improving medical outcomes, DOD officials have said.

CHCS II is DOD’s second-generation online medical records system. A Military Health System spokesman said it has now been deployed in 55 of the 139 hospitals and clinics that will be the primary system sites. Many of the hospitals and clinics have auxiliary clinics, the spokesman said. About 22,000 of 67,000 system users have been fully trained, the spokesman added.

The contract was awarded competitively to Cerner by the General Services Administration, which acted on behalf of the system.