Cerner Corporation
Public Affairs Strategic Plan
4Q99
through 3Q00
Cerner Corporation was
founded two decades ago on the notion that clinical knowledge and information
management could fundamentally transform health care by improving the efficacy
of patient care and the efficiency of the health care business. Since then, tremendous advances in
information technology hardware and Cerner’s
integrated architecture have brought Cerner’s vision
that much closer to reality. Its vision
of reforming an industry that now incorporates nearly 20 percent of the
It’s
time to tell this story.
If
information technology is an industry undergoing a progressive revolution,
health care is an industry embroiled in chaos.
The growing impact of ratcheted-down reimbursement from managed care
companies, coupled with steadily diminishing government reimbursements, has
created a crisis among US hospitals.
This financial crisis drives a desperate need to improve operating
efficiencies. The economic storm will be
compounded if, or when, the public becomes aware of significant differences in
clinical outcomes and the extraordinary risk of hospital- or physician-induced
injuries creates pressure for legislative, regulatory, or additional payer
mandates on the health care industry.
Cerner Corporation
is the only health care information technology company that offers the complete
array of clinical solutions in an integrated architecture that are required to bring order from the chaos of health care’s
clinical and management challenges.
Health care providers have already attempted numerous solutions that
have yet to impose order on its chaos; the industry is awaiting the
transformation that Cerner is dedicated to providing.
Health
care providers planning to improve operating efficiency and care quality have
practically no choice but to turn to clinical information management systems
like the solutions Cerner offers its clients across
the globe. As they deploy Cerner-style solutions via networked computers and the
Internet, the historic focus of the health care industry on the hospital will
expand to include a virtual community focused upon the patient, encompassing
hospitals and clinics, clinicians, payers, employers, home health providers,
community organizations, and others.
No company understands clinical information like Cerner. No other
company has Cerner’s assets: superior technology,
superior financial stability, superior customer satisfaction, and superior
corporate vision. Therefore, no company
is better positioned to provide the hardware backbone and software nervous
system of today’s physical -- and tomorrow’s virtual -- health care
communities.
This
strategic public affairs plan describes the strategies and tactics the public
affairs team believes are necessary to tell this story to opinion leaders in
the health care and information technology industries; Cerner’s
clients and potential clients; clinicians, patients and their advocates;
financial analysts; community and business leaders; and, the public
generally. In telling this story, we
will deliver a positive and proactive message to counteract inaccurate
perceptions of Cerner, and replace them with messages
designed to drive customer confidence and Cerner
growth.
Enhanced
public affairs activity for Cerner Corporation
demands an initial investment of time and energy to compile and analyze a broad
range of information that will form the basis of effective public affairs in
the future. Cerner’s public affairs team will
continue its activity related to the financial community, Y2K compliance,
community relations, and opportunistic news releases on new products and
executive changes. In addition, the
public affairs team will devote considerable attention to developing a public
relations plan for the expected human resources reallocation. The team will spend the balance of 4Q99
building resources for its future plans.
Despite the public affairs team’s depleted ranks,
this quarter’s plan represents an aggressive, but achievable, agenda.
Cerner Corporation
will develop and execute a positive and proactive message for its associates
related to the planned reallocation of human resources. This message will be consistent with Investor
Relations’ message to financial and business analysts, and with Media
Relations’ comments to the news outlets that cover Cerner.
The
public affairs team will develop a calendar-year 2000 internal public relations
plan that will emphasize associate support and information during Cerner’s transitions over the coming year. For example, the plan might take the form of
monthly messaging through Neal’s Notes, emails, contests, posters, etc., that
will focus on key corporate initiatives such as returning the company to
profitability, superior technology, cost-benefit analyses of Cerner products, associate ownership, etc.
Working
with Human Resources, the public affairs team will also develop a recruiting
plan to brand Cerner as “The Place To Be” (an
internal meeting focused on goals & messaging will took place the week of 4
October 99). Development of the Cerner 2000 recruiting plan includes specific emphasis on
sales recruiting and a potential targeted recruiting effort in a major health
care information technology fortress city such as
·
corporate videos
(three are currently in process);
·
recruiting
advertisements; and,
·
collateral recruiting material, including CDs and paper-based
promotional materials.
Cerner will solicit media interest at human resource magazines to
place a story featuring Stan Sword and Cerner’s
innovative people strategies.
Cerner will solicit news media interest at technology-oriented
business magazines to place stories about Cerner’s
unique associate development and continuing education opportunities, such as
classes offered at CVU.
In collaboration with CVU, the
public affairs team will develop a media kit to publicize Cerner’s
progressive associate and client education initiatives and knowledge-sharing
culture.
Cerner Corporation
will continue its scheduled community activities, particularly related to the
First Hand Foundation, Cerner’s annual holiday
program for the associate and external communities, and associate-related
activities.
Cerner will review
its existing memberships in community organizations and assess which member of Cerner’s executive team should represent Cerner, and who will assume any delegated responsibilities
for attendance or action.
Cerner will prepare a media kit for use if the corporation
decides to move forward with a campus expansion project, and receives the
municipal action necessary to move forward, including maps and drawings and
positive statements from Cerner and community
leaders.
Cerner will also begin evaluating opportunities to assume
positions of civic leadership with the upcoming departures of Sprint and
Hoechst Marion Roussell. Cerner will
particularly focus on placing its executives and directors on the boards of
philanthropic and civic organizations, with an emphasis on health, education,
and entrepreneur issues.
Cerner
Corporation’s government relations effort will remain a collaborative effort
among the marketing communications team until the corporation hires a
government affairs director. Before and
after that hire, government relations will be a separate effort coordinated
with the public affairs team. In the
mean time, Cerner will continue its assessment of a
government relations function that focuses on:
·
advocacy of heightened
awareness of safety and variance issues
in the health care industry that impact efficiency and efficacy;
·
enhancement of Cerner Corporation’s government sales efforts, particularly
as it relates to the Department of Defense;
·
improving Cerner’s awareness and analysis of proposed and past
legislation; and,
·
understanding of the methods Cerner might
utilize to affect key regulatory agencies.
As part of the assessment of Cerner’s future government affairs activity, Cerner will also consider retention of public affairs
consultants in
·
bipartisan respect
among members of Congress, regulators, and executive agencies;
·
experience in health
care or information technology issues, or both;
·
compatibility with Cerner’s executive team;
·
discretion in the
consultants’ ability to raise Congressional attention to health care issues
without drawing attention to Cerner Corporation; and,
·
the quality of the consultant’s strategic analysis and record
of success.
Cerner will assess
its already-inventoried memberships in trade associations and participation in
trade shows. Cerner
will determine if the participation justifies the costs; whether membership in
other associations would provide more significant benefits; and, whether Cerner executives or associates, or both, should assume
functional roles in any such organizations.
Cerner will
maintain or develop relationships with:
·
relevant staff members
of the
·
the relevant officials
and staff members that will allow Cerner to exert
influence at various levels of the Department of Defense;
·
relevant legislators
(leadership and health care, science and technology, and tax and business
committee members) in the
·
city officials and staff throughout the
As opportunities arise, and on an ongoing basis, Cerner will invite elected officials and their staffs to
visit client sites or the
The conclusion of the third
quarter and announcement of Cerner’s financial
results offers an opportunity to begin offering new and proactive messages to
the financial community and news media.
These messages should lay the foundation for future communications
specifically regarding:
·
the potential for
renewed earnings growth as Cerner reallocates human
resources and the health care information technology industry emerges from Y2K
concerns;
·
the rapidly escalating
pace of successful Millennium conversions, which proves Cerner
has closed the gap between its vision of health care information technology and
its ability to deliver on that vision;
·
Cerner’s exclusive development and deployment of
industry-recognized premier clinical information management innovations;
·
the opportunity for Cerner’s health care information technology systems to
catalyze improvement in the delivery of
care and the efficiency of health care services;
·
the health care
industry’s inevitable migration toward Cerner-type
solutions as financial and care quality issues assume greater prominence both
in the industry and in the public consciousness;
·
Cerner’s positioning for the future in its development of an
Application Service Provider line of business, and in its plans to open the HNA
architecture to all developers; and,
·
the evolving virtual health care community for which Cerner is preparing through its ASP and open access
architecture includes hospitals, clinicians, patients, public and private payers,
employers, clinics and other health care providers, etc.
The
logical conclusion of the preceding points is that no other company is as well
positioned as Cerner to develop and deploy the
hardware and software that will bring order from chaos in the current and
future health care community. All aspects of Cerner’s
public affairs plan – including internal and external public relations and
advertising – will reiterate and emphasize these messages.
Cerner will actively cultivate the message among analysts that Cerner has assembled a health care and information
technology leadership “dream team” who will ensure that Cerner
remains the preeminent health care information technology company well into the
new millennium. Media Relations will
supplement this message by pitching the “dream team” story to major business
publications (Forbes, Fortune, Business
Week, Wall Street Journal, etc.).
Cerner will develop a plan to share information about planned
human resources reallocation with the investor community, highlighting
completion of Millennium and the corporate adjustments necessary to focus on
improved sales and revenues.
Cerner will conduct
and conclude a survey of financial analysts who cover Cerner
and its industry, with particular attention to the issues that most motivate
their positive coverage. This survey
will form the basis of future public affairs activities targeted directly to
the health care information technology industry’s most influential analysts.
Cerner will
formally or informally survey analysts with favorable perspectives on Cerner to determine which aspects of Cerner’s
business and message they find most effective, and what suggestions those
analysts have to help Cerner tell its story to other
members of the financial community.
Cerner will analyze the funds that currently hold Cerner stock and develop a profile of those funds. Applying the profile of Cerner-holding
funds to all funds will allow Cerner to target
non-holding funds that are likely buyers of Cerner
stock for particular attention from IR associates and executives.
Cerner will
inaugurate periodic conference calls with executives to introduce members of Cerner’s dream team to the investor community and address
topical issues as they arise. Media
Relations will supplement this effort with periodic statements to the news
media from Cerner executives commenting on breaking
news or identifiable trends. Both
efforts will raise Cerner’s visibility in the
industry in a proactive and positive manner.
Current
IR initiatives that will continue each quarter on an ongoing basis include:
·
responding to 10 to 20
daily calls from all financial community constituencies;
·
quarterly earnings
release conference calls;
·
eight to 20
presentations at sell-side conferences;
·
one-on-one meetings to
reach out to institutional investors;
·
quarterly or bimonthly
financial community forums hosted at Cerner’s
·
site visits by analysts to such key Millennium sites as UIC.
Cerner Corporation
will prepare for potential problems with clients’ software or hardware by
developing a Y2K crisis response plan.
Cerner
Corporation’s public affairs team will develop a comprehensive database of
local and national media outlets and reporters who cover health care,
information technology, and business related to those industries. We will also develop a procedure for
maintenance of the database.
Once Cerner’s public affairs team identifies the relevant
outlets and reporters, we will begin building relationships with them through
regular personal contact, including distribution of digests of industry news
that convey Cerner’s vision through credible third
parties, and a survey of each reporter’s particular interests.
In
coordination with Investor Relations, Cerner will
solicit reporters at major health care business publications to cover the
“dream team” story of Cerner’s robust executive
committee.
In
conjunction with the “dream team” story, Cerner will
use expected earnings improvements to pitch to a major business magazine (Fortune, Business Week, Forbes, or
possibly a business management journal or Inc.)
the opportunity to exclusively cover Cerner
Corporation as a turnaround case study.
Cerner will also identify key local and regional reporters to
visit client sites or the
Cerner will inaugurate a biweekly or monthly digest of Cerner news briefs that capture events, achievements, or
announcements that do not merit full-blown news releases. The digest will allow Cerner
to place greater news emphasis on relatively more important items, while
maintaining Cerner’s presence in the industry among
industry leaders and the news media. The
digest could also become a component of the internal public relations strategy,
as a means of keeping all Cerner associates informed
their company’s industry activity.
Cerner will
capitalize on interest in the Y2K issue by sharing Cerner’s
“Y2OK” compliance and preparation for the Y2K event with selected members of
the local and national news media.
Cerner will also
capitalize on media interest in the “dot-com” phenomenon by developing a plan
to announce the return of Paul Gorup to direct Cerner’s on-line application service provider line of
business.
Similarly,
current media interest in open access architecture will allow Cerner to capitalize on HNA Objects, Cerner’s
plan to allow other firms to develop applications using Cerner’s
Millennium architecture. The public
affairs team will develop a plan to announce this major industry innovation.
Cerner will work
either independently or in conjunction with its industry colleagues to raise
awareness among the business and mainstream news media of challenges facing the
health care industry. This initiative
corresponds with government relations efforts to do the same with legislative
and regulatory audiences. In particular,
we will focus on the financial and care quality challenges that Cerner’s products can help health care providers address
and resolve. Developing a PowerPoint
presentation or substantial media kit will allow Cerner
to effectively spread this message through third parties.
The
public affairs team will also establish a master calendar of health care
events, trade shows, relevant financial dates, community activities,
legislative dates and deadlines, and other important dates to coordinate public
affairs activities.
Cerner Corporation will develop an article and accompanying
graphics for inclusion in Ingram’s
annual year-end philanthropy issue that will introduce Cerner
as
Cerner Corporation
will compile a list of health care and information technology consultants who
regularly influence the health care industry’s procurement decisions.
The sales
team will work with the public affairs team to identify clients that Cerner or third parties could study or profile as
particularly successful examples of Cerner’s vision
of clinical information management.
Cerner will begin
distribution to Cerner’s sales staff, clients, and
the previously identified consultants a quarterly briefing of relevant news
stories and case studies focusing on benefits realization and greater
efficiency and efficacy in the delivery of care. After distribution to the target audiences, Cerner should make these briefings available on the www.cerner.com web site. Examples of stories and cases for such
briefings include:
·
Mayo Clinic,
·
Baptist Health System:
$3.5 million annual savings on a $1.5 million investment using PathNet, and Discern.
·
Integris: $2.1 million annual savings on a $5 million investment
using OCF/PC, Order Management, Major Ancillaries, and Discern.
·
Good Samaritan: $3
million annual savings on a $1.8 million investment.
·
What is the true
definition of an enterprise-wide system, how do software architectures differ,
and why does it matter?
Since the
budget for this quarter was previously allocated, much of the activity in this
quarter will focus on assessment, planning, and activities that carry no or
marginal costs.
One
priority will be the development of an effective method for tracking,
summarizing, internally distributing, and archiving news, financial, and public
affairs materials regarding the health care, information technology, and
business related to these industries.
A second
priority will be the review, assessment, and, if necessary, updating of Cerner’s existing public affairs processes and approval
documents for public affairs activities.
A third,
critical priority will be the updating of www.cerner.com,
with particular attention to eliminating outdated information, and making sure
current information is easily accessible for site visitors, including potential
clients, the financial community, and the news media.
The
public affairs team, in coordination with Cerner’s
continuing education staff, will also evaluate and select a team to conduct
media training of Cerner’s executive team.
If budget
constraints make unlikely the conduct of formal studies of the efficiency and
efficacy improvements made possible by Cerner’s
solutions, the public affairs team will begin to establish relationships with
academic institutions with courses of study that would permit academic studies
of Cerner’s clinical information management
strategies. The intent would be to trade
access to Cerner client sites and performance data
for academic research supporting Cerner’s claims of
improved patient outcomes and operating efficiencies.
The
public affairs team will spend remainder of calendar year 1999 splitting time
between activity and preparation for more robust future activity. Measurable deliverables at the end of 4Q99
will include a collection of documents that encompass:
·
a comprehensive list
of investor analysts and the issues they consider most important;
·
a database of investor
comments about Cerner for use in future investor and
media relations;
·
a profile of Cerner-holding investor funds and a list of non-holding
funds that fit that profile;
·
investor and media
plans to capitalize on the dot-com and open source phenomena with the
announcement of Paul Gorup’s return to Cerner;
·
investor, associate,
and media plans to address human resources reallocation;
·
Y2K plans to
proactively sell Cerner’s readiness, and respond in
the event of problems;
·
community memberships
and commitments, and an assessment of potential opportunities to heighten Cerner’s visibility;
·
trade association
memberships and accompanying documentation that support their missions and
value to Cerner;
·
a government relations
plan to bring health care information technology issues before legislative and
regulatory leaders;
·
a comprehensive list
of local and national media outlets and reporters covering health care,
information technology, and the businesses related to both;
·
a master calendar of Cerner and health care-related events, and other relevant
deadlines and dates;
·
health care and
information technology consultants who can influence their clients’ purchase of
Cerner products; and,
·
clients that would make good case studies to show the improvements
made possible by Cerner’s solutions.
By the
end of 1999, Cerner’s public affairs team expects to
receive favorable coverage of Cerner Corporation in
mainstream, business, and health care information technology media outlets, and
in financial analyses, on the following topics:
·
Cerner’s progressive people practices;
·
Cerner’s “dream team” of corporate executives;
·
the business
turnaround story of Cerner;
·
Y2K preparation; and,
·
the future of information-driven health care and the
efficiency and quality challenges the industry faces.
As Cerner
Corporation begins the new year, the health care
industry will truly undergo a transformation.
Out from under the media- and investor-perceived cloud of Y2K, the
industry and its observers will be looking for “the next big thing.” The industry will still face the economic
siege imposed by the Balanced Budget Act, and will begin to realize the future
impact of HIPAA.
As
health care providers continue to hemorrhage money and look for answers they
have not yet found, Cerner’s public affairs team will
be prepared to offer health care information technology – not currently on the
industry’s radar screen as a solution to its financial chaos – as “the next big
thing.”
Among
the health care industry, Cerner will foster a
growing awareness that only an enterprise-wide, integrated architecture will
provide the industry’s needed relief.
The public affairs team will also try to persuade decision makers that
there is, indeed, a single vendor – Cerner – that can
provide the solution, a fact of which the industry remains extremely skeptical.
Cerner must also confront the perception that it is a provider of
limited clinical solutions that has been plagued by product delays and
implementation issues. Likewise, Cerner must clearly communicate its understanding of its
clients’ desire to maintain the value of their legacy investments in
information technology.
In
summary, the public affairs team’s job in this and future quarters will be
overcome the health care industry’s conservatism by persuading its opinion
leaders that Cerner’s applications are ready and able
to meet the challenges of improving operating efficiency and care outcomes.
Cerner Corporation
will launch an internal award program to recognize on a quarterly basis a Cerner associate who is particularly active in his or her
community, and solicit local media interest in the award’s recipient.
Cerner will continue its efforts to involve associates in
important community activities through participation in such programs as
mentors for schools, literacy and wellness projects, Habitat for Humanity,
blood drives, neighborhood clean-ups, etc.
Cerner Corporation will seek a partnership (not necessarily a
paid advertisement) with a local television news program to sponsor or
co-sponsor a regular feature on health care, and more particularly the business
of healthcare, that recognizes innovative new approaches or practices in
healthcare delivery.
Cerner will host an open house or breakfast for local healthcare
and business professionals, potentially in conjunction with the 2000 Health
Conference, promoting awareness and understanding of Cerner
missions and products.
Cerner will continue its efforts to involve associates in
important community activities through sponsorship of such community
initiatives as food banks, health and wellness fairs, health-related rides and
runs, etc.
Cerner Corporation
will develop a strategic plan to insert Cerner’s
issues into upcoming elections to statewide and federal offices.
Cerner will invite
city, county, and state elected officials to its open house in conjunction with
the 2000 Health Conference, promoting awareness and understanding of Cerner missions and products.
Cerner will point to the BBA and HIPAA as external forces
buffeting the health care industry that will increasingly drive health care
providers to seek the solutions and applications Cerner
offers.
Cerner Corporation will use the passage of Y2K concerns to point
to the positive financial implications of pent-up demand for information
technology and services, since the health care industry has devoted so much of
its resources to addressing Y2K compliance issues over the last year.
Cerner will invite financial analysts to its open house in
conjunction with the 2000 Health Conference, promoting awareness and
understanding of Cerner missions and products.
Cerner will continue to offer and enhance its regular meetings
with the financial community, including executive and issue-oriented conference
calls, visits by analysts to Cerner client sites,
hosting of and attendance at relevant conferences, and earnings road shows.
Cerner expects that
Y2K-associated problems in business generally and health care specifically will
continue to dominate the media’s interest through the first quarter of 2000.
Cerner
Corporation’s public affairs team will work with Jack Newman’s Millennium
Health Initiative effort to drive broad media interest in the white paper that MHI’s multi-year effort will produce. This activity will include drafting,
reviewing, or editing the white paper as needed; soliciting interest of major
sponsors of the white paper, such as Dr. Koop or Sen. Nancy Kassebaum
Baker; and, planning an extensive media campaign to earn coverage in mainstream
and specialty news publications.
Cerner’s public
affairs team will capitalize on continued interest in Y2K issues to point to
the expected demand for information technology services created by the previous
year’s commitment of time and resources to achieving Y2K compliance.
Cerner will offer an exclusive story to John Morrissey at Modern Healthcare, following up on his
comment in May 1999 that, “After the readiness plans are in place and the smoke
clears, healthcare executives may not like what they see. What will remain is
the unfinished integration of the diverse amalgamation of hospitals, physician
practices and other facilities that make up integrated delivery networks.” We arrange site visit to a Millennium client
where Cerner architecture has helped a system become
a truly integrated delivery network.
Cerner’s public affairs team will develop a strategic public
relations plan for our clients who have converted to Millennium. The plan will allow both Cerner
and the client to invite local news media to report on the new state-of-the-art computer systems their local healthcare
providers have implemented. Cerner
clients would see additional benefits from selecting Cerner in the form of free
public relations, differentiating themselves from their competitors, and
distinguishing their institution in the eyes of their customers.
Cerner will solicit media interest among major mainstream news
publications (Time,
Cerner will capitalize on mainstream publication of a paperless
clinical experience to drive publication in a trade magazine of an article,
“What the Paper Chart Cost My Practice.”
Written by an associate of a Cerner physician
executive, the story will estimate costs of dictation, lost time, productivity,
and patient satisfaction that result from the inaccessibility of the paper
medical record at one physician’s office that has recently gone paperless. The
article will also describe the expected and unexpected, and real and perceived,
benefits of going paperless.
Cerner will solicit the Healthcare
Forum Journal to write an article that evidence-based medicine is the only
ethically, financially, and scientifically sound decision for health care
providers. Stated or unstated, the point
of the story is that, without the end-to-end clinical information management
abilities that Cerner offers, evidence-based medicine
will remain an objective, not an achievement.
The
public affairs team will work with the sales team to identify a clinician at a
client site to undertake a study that will showcase the improved efficiency and
efficacy of Cerner’s products, with particular
emphasis on improved operating efficiency.
Cerner will use the study to earn placement of
news stories in major and local business outlets.
Cerner will
continue to work with its colleagues and consultants to raise awareness among
the news media and opinion leaders, without identifying Cerner
as the source, of important health care information technology issues, such as
the differentiation in patient outcomes and the high risk of hospital- and
physician-induced injuries.
Cerner Corporation
will launch a year-long local and regional branding campaign in mainstream
publications to raise the general public’s and community leaders’ awareness of Cerner as a premier corporate citizen and employer.
Cerner will launch
a similar year-long campaign targeted at the local and regional business
community to raise business leaders’ awareness of Cerner
as a significant employer, member of the health care community, and exemplary
corporate citizen.
Cerner will launch
a year-long campaign in Modern Healthcare
targeted at healthcare executives to raise awareness of the growing importance
of comprehensive information technology strategies for all healthcare
facilities.
Cerner will develop
and place an advertorial/case study, Evidence-Based Medicine: The Technology
Connection, to polybag or insert in Medical Economics or Modern Healthcare. The
piece will argue for evidence-based medicine and explain that only integrated
clinical information management can deliver all the promises associated with
evidence-based medicine.
Cerner will launch
an advertising campaign targeted to healthcare information technology consultants
to brand Cerner’s products as best in class, and
renew consultants’ interest in recommending Cerner
products.
Cerner will purchase space for an interview with Neal Patterson
in Delta Airlines’ in-flight magazine to highlight Cerner
Corporation as a leading innovator in the healthcare information technology
industry and The Place To Be in the region and the
health care information technology industry.
Note: These annualized
budget proposals were derived prior to completion of the budget approval
process. They will be modified based on
the budgets approved at the conclusion of the planning process for next year.
Cerner Corporation
plans to launch several significant advertising campaigns to address critical
image, sales, and recruiting issues.