Cerner Corp. has signed an agreement to acquire substantially all the assets of Bridge Medical, Inc., an AmerisourceBergen Corp. subsidiary and a provider of point-of-care software. The transaction will expand Cerner's presence in the bar coding market.
"Cerner is committed to providing solutions to our clients that improve health outcomes at the bedside, resulting in greater productivity and safety. This acquisition brings speed to safety in the healthcare market, and bolsters our already significant set of point-of-care technologies, as well as our client base," said Paul Black, Cerner chief operating officer. "As hospitals and health organizations strive to meet the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations standards, the growth of Cerner's point-of-care offerings positions the company well to help our clients remain fully compliant with industry requirements."
Bridge Medical's bar code-enabled point-of-care system combines medication verification with laboratory specimen identification. The solution employs bar code scanning, clinical knowledge bases, wireless networking and integration capabilities to alert clinicians of potential medication administration and collection errors at the bedside.
The acquisition complements Cerner's PowerPOC suite of solutions and Cerner Millennium PathNet Handheld Specimen Collections for laboratory. With Bridge Medical technologies among its offerings, Cerner will be able to bring new opportunities to longstanding Cerner Classic clients, and extend a greater reach into the growing point-of-care software market.
