Cerner at Odds with Hospital over Installation of System

Cerner Corp. and a small Kansas hospital have become embroiled in a dispute over failed attempts to install an electronic medical records system. Girard Medical Center, a critical-access hospital northwest of Pittsburg, Kan., had sued the North Kansas City-based supplier of information technology to hospitals, doctors and others in health care.

Their quarrel is now in arbitration under an order issued in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan. A Cerner spokesman said the company does not discuss litigation. Girard officials did not respond to a request for comment made through the hospital’s attorney.

Cerner employees, the hospital’s lawsuit said, promised features that the system Girard bought didn’t have and exhibited “disparaging attitudes” about the hospital.
The hospital said Cerner also failed to deliver the system in time to qualify Girard for federal incentive payments it needed to make the $2.9 million project affordable...