Epic Systems added more U.S. hospitals to its electronic health records software footprint than its competitors last year, according to a new report.
Seventy-four hospitals implemented Epic’s EHR platform in 2021, expanding its market share from 31% to 33%, KLAS Research’s annual report on EHR market share found. It aggregated publicly available information, self-reported EHR vendor data and information from operators of acute-care, psychiatric, long-term acute care, rehabilitation and other specialty hospitals.
More than 340 hospitals either purchased a new EHR system or migrated to a new version of their vendor’s EHR product last year, up 44% from 2020, according to the report. Epic was the top choice for large organizations. Cerner was the favorite among smaller hospitals.
Epic signed 43 new customers in 2021, comprising 78 new hospitals. The two customers it lost were consolidated or acquired. Cerner, which is being acquired by Oracle and is in the midst of a rollout with the Veterans Affairs Department, signed 41 new customers but lost 25, resulting in a net growth of five hospitals year-over-year, according to the report.
Cerner added the most specialty hospitals to its footprint at 47; Meditech secured the second-most at 10. Thirty of Cerner’s 47 hospitals were part of a contract with one customer that’s constructing new rehabilitation hospitals.
Cerner also signed the most contracts with small, stand-alone hospitals—defined as those with 200 or fewer beds—of any EHR vendor, at 22, followed by Meditech at 19 and Epic at 15.
Most customers who left Cerner moved to Epic, according to the report.
Meditech had the second-highest net growth after Epic with 18 more hospitals in 2021, driven by new contracts with stand-alone hospitals and existing customers adding new facilities.
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions had a net loss of 26 hospitals compared to 2020, gaining two stand-alone hospitals but losing 11 customers. In March, the company announced that it was selling its hospital and large physician practice business and related EHR platforms to focus on the payer and life sciences sectors.
Three-quarters of customers who left Allscripts migrated to an Epic EHR, and one-quarter went to Cerner, Meditech or SPSI, according to the KLAS report.
Cerner trailed Epic’s leading market share with 24% of U.S. hospitals. Meditech had 17%.
Epic, Cerner and Meditech topped the market with 31%, 25% and 16% of hospitals, respectively, in KLAS’ report from last year.
