Cathy Mueller, Cerner's vice president of Client Experience, passed away Sunday, May 6, 2012, after a courageous battle with cancer. Cathy led by example and was a role model for others in her service to the community and to Cerner. To honor her legacy, Cerner is establishing the Cathy Mueller Service Excellence Award. It will recognize a Cerner associate who is instrumental in creating a culture where associates and clients can collaborate to drive process improvements.

Cathy joined Cerner in 2004 as director of Client Care to create a new client experience and build client loyalty. She brought more than 40 years of executive experience in operations and management to the position. This includes expertise in building client loyalty, measuring client satisfaction and creating a high performance culture for associates. She understood what was necessary for client satisfaction, listened to what clients had to say, managed and solved their questions, and sought input and feedback through multiple channels. She created an outlet so Cerner clients would have a voice.

Among her many responsibilities, Cathy oversaw corporate satisfaction strategy, which includes gathering the voice of the client from client surveys, councils, forums and various other feedback venues. She also provided analysis and drove operational improvements and new initiatives designed to enhance client satisfaction and value. Cerner has achieved numerous successes as a result of her focus to create the perfect client experience with every interaction.

Toward that effort, Cathy developed Cerner’s comprehensive client satisfaction strategy to receive client feedback, which draws more than 5,000 responses annually. These responses provide insight and information to senior Cerner leadership. She also created and executed the Client Satisfaction Cabinet to drive cross-functional programs and improvement initiatives to influence client satisfaction and value. She established Cerner’s Client Care Council in 2004. The council currently comprises 31 U.S. clients and 11 global clients who partner with Cerner on operational improvements.

Prior to joining Cerner, Cathy worked for the IBM Corporation for 36 years. There, she held a variety of management and executive leadership positions, including responsibility for client satisfaction for IBM Americas (Canada, U.S. and Latin America) and worldwide leadership for IBM billing quality. In addition, she was active in the Kansas City community, serving on the board of trustees for Avila University and the board of the Kansas City Catholic Diocese, Central City School Fund. She was also a board member on Cerner's First Hand Foundation.

Cathy was a graduate of St. Louis University, where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.