Epic has been working on interoperability for years and announced new efforts in recent months.

EHR vendor Epic Systems and Microsoft are training Azure OpenAI on a large collection of information so it can asynchronously draft responses to patient messages for providers, and hospitals and health systems have already begun piloting it. 

From adding 23 hospitals and health systems to the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement to working with Microsoft to train its Azure OpenAI to draft clinicians' messages to patients, here are five updates on Epic's operations, software products and partnerships reported by Becker's Hospital Review in May:

Denis McDonough, the secretary of veterans affairs, said he will further investigate claims that Spokane, Wash.-based Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center would have to cut staff due to a projected $35 million budget deficit caused largely by its Cerner EHR system, The Spokesman-Review reported May 24. 

Eighty-three hospitals joined the Epic network in 2022, the most of any EHR vendor last year, according to KLAS Research.

UNC Health CIO Brent Lamm told Becker's that the health system is looking to reduce physicians' pajama time — time spent on answering patient messages within its My UNC Chart — with Epic and Microsoft's generative artificial intelligence tool that automatically drafts message responses. 

Here are the EHR vendors that gained — or lost — acute care hospital market share between 2021 and 2022, according to a May 23 KLAS Research report.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has not established goals to assess user satisfaction with its new Cerner EHR system, a May 18 Government Accountability Office report found. 

Chapel Hill, N.C.-based UNC Health will pilot Epic and Microsoft's generative artificial intelligence tool that automatically drafts message responses.

Epic continued to pull away from the competition in 2022, adding dozens of hospitals and thousands of hospital beds to its EHR market share, a May 23 KLAS Research report found.

Leading health systems from across the country such as Stanford Health Care and Mayo Clinic have pledged to use Epic's software to share health information with the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement. 

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Spokane, Wash.-based Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center said it has a projected $35 million budget deficit due largely in part to its troubled Cerner EHR system, which in turn is forcing the hospital to cut staff, The Spokesman-Review reported May 21. 

Below are three health systems and hospitals that have implemented or announced plans to implement an EHR system from Meditech, as reported by Becker's since March 8:

Since Oracle completed its $28.4 billion acquisition of Cerner in June 2022, the tech giant has made multiple changes to Cerner's leadership, software offerings, employee count and operations. 

Closing the "evidence gap" to allow providers to deliver more informed care will require better coordination between physicians and data scientists with access to years of patient records, data leaders from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care and Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic wrote May 17 in Harvard Business Review.

Oracle has reportedly cut 3,000 jobs from Cerner, with layoffs hitting sectors such as marketing, engineering, accounting, legal and product, Business Today reported May 18.

Artificial intelligence voice assistant company Suki has integrated with EHR vendor Epic Systems, allowing customers to use its ambient note-generating capabilities.

Alliance, Neb.-based Box Butte General Hospital went live with its new Meditech EHR system on May 1, Alliance-Times Herald reported May 17.

The Department of Veterans Affair has renegotiated its $10 billion contract with Oracle, which dramatically increases the company's accountability for the troubled VA Cerner EHR system.