Healthcare IT giant Cerner and HealthSouth Corporation, the largest provider of post-acute care in the country, are building a Post-Acute Innovation Center. Together, they will develop new technology to boost care for some of the most medically complex patients.

HealthSouth and Cerner's collaboration began with the development and implementation of HealthSouth's clinical information system, which is installed at 116 of HealthSouth's 126 hospitals so far. The alliance was spawned by the lack of adequate technology for post-acute care.

"The post-acute network management tools currently available have largely been developed either by non-providers with limited clinical expertise or providers that have not made the necessary technology investments to advance efficient, patient-focused care," HealthSouth President and CEO Mark Tarr said in a statement.

Cerner President Zane Burke added that "person-centered care is the future, and Cerner is eager to help drive ideas that enhance provider and consumer access to data."

The Innovation Center is expected to generate such ideas and be on the forefront of developing evidenced-based solutions. It combines HealthSouth’s experience with clinical collaboration and its installed technology with Cerner's software and data analytics.

The center will develop clinical decision support tools designed to manage patients across multiple care settings. It will also employ diverse data sets from multiple care settings to develop initiatives to improve care coordination, post-acute network performance and cost management.

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