Acquisitions (Details) (USD $)	12 Months Ended							12 Months Ended			12 Months Ended					12 Months Ended				12 Months Ended
	Dec. 28, 2013	Dec. 29, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 28, 2013 Pure Wellness [Member]	Mar. 04, 2013 Pure Wellness [Member]	Mar. 04, 2013 Pure Wellness [Member] Existing technologies [Member]	Mar. 04, 2013 Pure Wellness [Member] Customer relationships [Member]	Dec. 28, 2013 Labotix [Member]	Mar. 18, 2013 Labotix [Member]	Mar. 18, 2013 Labotix [Member] Existing technologies [Member]	Dec. 29, 2012 Anasazi Software, Inc. [Member]	Nov. 26, 2012 Anasazi Software, Inc. [Member]	Nov. 26, 2012 Anasazi Software, Inc. [Member] Existing technologies [Member]	Nov. 26, 2012 Anasazi Software, Inc. [Member] Customer relationships [Member]	Nov. 26, 2012 Anasazi Software, Inc. [Member] Trade names [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Clairvia, Inc. [Member]	Oct. 17, 2011 Clairvia, Inc. [Member]	Oct. 17, 2011 Clairvia, Inc. [Member] Existing technologies [Member]	Oct. 17, 2011 Clairvia, Inc. [Member] Customer relationships [Member]	Dec. 29, 2012 Resource Systems, Inc. [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Resource Systems, Inc. [Member]	May 23, 2011 Resource Systems, Inc. [Member]	May 23, 2011 Resource Systems, Inc. [Member] Existing technologies [Member]	May 23, 2011 Resource Systems, Inc. [Member] Customer relationships [Member]	Mar. 04, 2013 Domestic Segment Pure Wellness [Member]	Mar. 18, 2013 Domestic Segment Labotix [Member]	Nov. 26, 2012 Domestic Segment Anasazi Software, Inc. [Member]	Oct. 17, 2011 Domestic Segment Clairvia, Inc. [Member]	May 23, 2011 Domestic Segment Resource Systems, Inc. [Member]
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Business Acquisition, Effective Date of Acquisition				Mar. 04, 2013				Mar. 18, 2013			Nov. 26, 2012					Oct. 17, 2011					May 23, 2011
Business Acquisition, Name of Acquired Entity				Kaufman & Keen, LLC (doing business as PureWellness)				Labotix Corporation (together with its wholly owned subsidiary Labotix Automation, Inc., Labotix)			Anasazi Software, Inc. (Anasazi)					Clairvia, Inc.					Resource Systems, Inc.
Business Acquisition, Description of Acquired Entity				PureWellness is a health and wellness company that develops solutions for the administration and management of wellness programs, and to enable plan member engagement strategies.				Labotix is a developer of laboratory automation solutions for clinical laboratories.			Anasazi is a provider of behavioral health technology solutions.					a developer of health care workforce management solutions, including Care Value Management™ and Physician Scheduler™					developer of the CareTracker® point-of-care electronic documentation system primarily used within skilled nursing and assisted living facilities
Business Combination, Reason for Business Combination				Our acquisition of PureWellness will further expand what we believe to be a robust offering of solutions to manage and improve the health of populations.				We believe the combination of Cerner Millennium, Cerner Copath, and Labotix will allow us to offer a comprehensive set of capabilities to support high volume laboratory testing.			We believe the combination of Cerner Millennium, including in-patient behavioral health, and Anasazi's community behavioral health solutions create a more comprehensive offering in the market.					The Care Value Management suite was integrated into our broader cloud-based and interoperability platforms, Cerner Healthe Intent and CareAware, which allows us to offer a comprehensive suite of resource management solutions.					Cerner believes that there is significant market opportunity for information technology solutions in the long-term care market as the U.S. population ages and life expectancy continues to increase.
Business Acquisition, Percentage of Voting Interests Acquired									100.00%			100.00%										100.00%
Business Combination, Consideration Transferred				$ 69,200,000				$ 18,000,000			$ 47,700,000					$ 38,300,000					$ 36,300,000
Business Combination, Contingent Consideration Arrangements, Description				payable if we achieve certain revenue milestones from PureWellness solutions and services during the period commencing on August 1, 2013 and ending April 30, 2015.							payable upon the achievement of certain revenue milestones during 2013 from Anasazi solutions and services										payable upon the achievement of certain revenue and bookings milestones
Business Combination, Contingent Consideration Arrangements, Change in Amount of Contingent Consideration, Liability	(800,000)	(3,400,000)	(779,000)								800,000									3,400,000
Business Acquisition, Contingent Consideration, at Fair Value					19,000,000
Business Combination, Provisional Information, Initial Accounting Incomplete, Reasons								The allocation of purchase price is subject to changes as a working capital adjustment is finalized and additional information becomes available; however, we do not expect material changes.
Business Combination, Goodwill Recognized, Description				consists largely of the synergies and economies of scale, including the value of the assembled workforce, expected from combining the operations of Cerner and PureWellness							consists largely of the synergies and economies of scale, including the value of the assembled workforce, expected from combining the operations of Cerner and Anasazi
Business Acquisition, Goodwill, Expected Tax Deductible Amount									0			0										0
Acquired Finite-lived Intangible Assets, Weighted Average Useful Life				7 years				5 years			12 years 0 months 0 days					7 years 0 months 0 days					5 years 0 months 0 days
Business Combination, Recognized Identifiable Assets Acquired, Goodwill, and Liabilities Assumed, Net
Current assets					1,443,000							5,962,000
Property and equipment					240,000							798,000
Current liabilities					(1,315,000)							(6,365,000)
Deferred income taxes, net												(5,851,000)
Total net tangible assets					368,000							(5,456,000)
Intangible assets					20,269,000	9,805,000	10,464,000			5,200,000		18,559,000	5,218,000	12,829,000	512,000		14,100,000	6,100,000	6,800,000			18,200,000	6,400,000	11,200,000
Goodwill	307,422,000	247,616,000	211,826,000														24,600,000								48,555,000	11,700,000	34,595,000	24,600,000	26,100,000
Total purchase price					$ 69,192,000							$ 47,698,000