Cerner interface

We have an interface from Lawson to Cerner (Surginet) using a modified IC527 file. We are not sending certain locations and are not sending Inactive items but we are sending the entire item master (with those 2 or maybe 3 different exceptions).

When the IC527 job runs, it keeps track of where it is at, and after the initial load, will only load changes to the item master.

See https://www.lawsonguru.co...-in-cerner-surginet/
or possibly here: https://www.lawsonguru.co.../lawson-integration/

Any questions, please continue to ask!!

We have Cerner interfacing to Lawson and use Lawson as "the source of truth" for the item master. We populate the Item Alpha 4 field in IC11 with "Surgery". This triggers the interface to grab the information from Lawson and send it to Cerner. It is a home grown interface, so only sends specific fields.

I am not sure what you mean by locations/locators, but we do not receive any information from Cerner; it is a one way connection sending info from Lawson to Cerner.

Since we do not do anything on the Cerner side, my knowledge of the system is limited, but I do know that there is a lot of manually managing going on in Cerner. For example, if we convert an item and therefore change the manufacturer or vendor, Cerner will do one of two things. One, if the manufacturer or vendor do not exist then the item errors out when it enters Cerner. The tech has to add the manufacturer or vendor to Cerner then asks us to trigger the interface to send the item again. We do this by removing :Surgery" from the Item Alpha 4 field and then reentering it. Second, if the manufacturer or vendor exists then Cerner creates a second record for the item. The tech has to remove (not sure if that is delete or inactivate) the old item which leaves the new item active. It then can be added to the pref cards.

Good Luck!

Rebecca

Thank you for your responses.  Cerner is stating that they need a location to come from Lawson for each item for each location this item maybe stored in, (example; Item 123 Glove, stored in the core, micro room,) SO the item when placed on a pref card, will have the options of where they are pulling it from. 

So, it sounds as if both of you (Rebecca & Greg) are sending only item information (Greg sending entire item master/exceptions of active items, Rebecca sending items flagged as we are for 'surgery specific') but are not sending items with locations (either another user field listing, or based on a par location/template).   Did Cerner state anything about the items needing pricing per different location where they may be stored? (example if an item is kept at an offsite may have different pricing as the same item kept at the hospital?)

Greg do you have the problem of Cerner either duplicating an item when you resend it with a change as Rebecca does, or if it rejects because a new manufacturer or vendor catalog number is interfaced over?   


Thanks so much for your help!

Okay, now I understand the locations. Our OR does not have any PAR or Inventory locations at this time.

Sheri, are you using an "out of the box" interface? If so, is it a Cerner, Lawson, or other product? Our issues may be different due to the "home grown" interface, but I am not sure.

If you'd like, you could use the "Out of the box" IC526 -- we started with that one, but it didn't contain all of the information that we personally wanted to send, so we switched to IC527...
Be aware, though that the file formats are different:
IC526 IC527
MSH segment MSH segment
MFI segment MFI segment
CD1 CD1
CD2 CD2
CD3 CD3
MSH CD1
MFI CD2
CD1 CD3

And Cerner wants the file in IC526 format.... so I wrote a shell script and a perl script to strip out items and convert the file.

@Sheri- Yes, we do have the same "issues" as Rebecca

We've also noted that Cerner (for whatever reason) cannot handle files correctly with more than 1,000 items in them... You get all kinds of bogus errors. My Perl script divides the files up into ~1,000 item chunks.

I believe that everywhere an item is stored at may have a different price... This will come across in the interface file..
@Sheri, why don't you just try running IC526 in your test environment to see what it produces. Look in $LAWDIR/prodline/interface or $LAWDIR/prodline/work/WORKFILE-IC526

When you want to run a full file again, just delete the idx file from that WORKFILE-IC526 directory and you'll get a full file again.

We are using our own interface, sounds like Greg has some of these same issues happening. Will be interesting to see how this goes, our main concern will be the daily interface for new items and item changes.  

Greg I looked at the IC526-527 screens with our IT interface staff, and they are still wanting to use our own interface.

Do either of you have your items listed to the "EA" level? We only have nonstocks in our system in the purchase UOM. We are having to break down our items in formulas via an Access pull so we can divide the factor amount into purchase cost to get ea cost. Same type of thing for our stock items we issue out by a larger UOM so, quite difficult to put in all the qualifiers.  Should it be this difficult?

Here's a little doc I created that includes most of what constitutes an item change and will trigger the item(s) getting sent across in the file.  I believe the same logic is used for all of the IC52x jobs.

Thanks I will share this with our interface staff. Do you have any UOM/cost per ea issues with providing item cost thru Cerner?

Yes. Cerner wants everything in EA (or the lowest possible) UOM. We spent a lot of time adding conversion factors in Lawson for all of the items to get them to lowest UOM. You will absolutely want to do this, though.

Right now we are setting a equation (dividing purchase/issue cost by qty)in our pull/interface and entering "EA" for all items.  

Maybe we will change this process as we move forward.  

Thanks for all your help, will be posting more on this I am sure!

Hi, back to the topic of supplying Cerner our Materials item master. Could you let me know if and how you are providing item locations/locators to Cerner from Lawson?