Further insights on and thoughts about the Oracle acquisition of Cerner

HISTalk, with its focus on health IT and generally short mentions without opinion on the news, in today’s issue includes some thoughts on the Oracle-Cerner deal, including a rare “Announcements and Requests” inviting reader thoughts on the acquisition’s effect on several issues. Also rare: a lengthy anonymous comment from a healthcare CIO.

A few highlights–your Editor recommends you go to the article for more:

• Oracle’s free cash is far less than the purchase price at $23 billion. They will need additional financing to complete the Cerner acquisition.
• Announcements and Requests: will customers on the fence between Epic and Cerner run towards the less uncertain choice? Will the Cerner VA and DOD business be affected? How does this affect Cerner’s implementations of cloud services, currently AWS versus Oracle’s Gen2, as well as healthcare’s usage of  InterSystems Cache versus Oracle’s relational databases? And will Oracle’s Voice Digital Assistant as the user interface to Cerner Millenium really fly?
• From Change of Control: How key to the deal was CEO David Feinberg MD, who only joined in October? No matter what, he’s now a very wealthy man.
• From On-Demand: Oracle is buying its way into healthcare. Cerner lost a lot of ground in executive changes and a less than effective CEO. (Editor’s note: This dates back to 2017–the illness and untimely death of Neal Patterson, the co-founder and CEO, at age 67 and president Zane Burke’s departure the following year after 20 years for the CEO spot at Livongo, which undoubtedly made him a wealthy man!)
• From Anonymous Health System CIO’s Initial Thoughts: Their biggest problems are 1) people and process.”Cerner has struggled to maintain competent staff that understand healthcare and individual customer workflows. Throughout our implementations, we had major challenges with project management, availability of experienced staff, and the ability to help us make informed decisions.”  2) “If Oracle is going to help reduce the cost of healthcare, they also need to help find savings for their customers.” 

All these should be of concern to Cerner as they–and their people–try to maintain momentum until the acquisition closes. Customer uncertainty, staff competence, and Oracle’s lack of background in how healthcare operates (including a history of pulling some ‘fast ones’ around cloud licensing, as well as understanding clinician preferences such as Dragon as a voice assistant) are undoubtedly giving some investors–and hospital systems–pause. Hat tip to HISTalk. Our earlier coverage here.

One final comment from Editor Donna: Never underestimate the power of a CEO’s ego–especially one who is routinely compared to God, at least in TechWorld–in wanting One Last Coup to burnish his escutcheon, before that Long Sail Into The Sunset on his yacht Musashi.