Mergers and acquisitions fueling Epic’s dominance of EHR market
Epic Systems has continued its dominance of the electronic health record (EHR) market, adding three health systems in 2023. According to a new KLAS Research report, Epic was also the only EHR vendor to increase its overall customer base.
Large hospital organizations are the single most significant force behind changes in the market. Of the 319 hospitals that adopted a new EHR for the acute care market, 77 chose Epic. Over half of all patient beds in the country for acute multidisciplinary care are now reliant on Epic.
Specialty care practices also tended to choose Epic, with its AdventHealth Community Connect application being especially popular because it allows practices to easily connect with hospitals that already use the EHR.
The health systems and practices surveyed by KLAS said they ultimately chose Epic because it allows them to combine systems needed for services and business operations—from patient scheduling to revenue management—and ultimately simplify IT needs.
Mixed results for other vendors
Meditech’s customer retention rate dropped to an historic low in 2023. Some of the losses (roughly 25%) were a result of hospital mergers and buyouts that led to a change in EHR, but many Meditech customers switched to Epic, citing interoperability with other hospitals already using it. In 2023, the vendor covered 13% of all hospital beds.
Oracle Health didn’t fare much better. Oracle’s key market has been small, independent hospitals, many of which closed or were bought out by larger organizations. However, the KLAS report also cites customer dissatisfaction with Oracle Millenium, particularly its revenue cycle management offering. In 2023, Oracle still covered 23% of hospital operations in the U.S.
Oracle also earned more new customers than any other EHR vendor among specialty hospitals in 2023, and the vendor has been increasing its market share in that category steadily since 2017.
The full KLAS report can be found here.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.