Implementing a new EHR can generate big time costs for hospitals and health systems, with some spending hundreds of millions to even more than a billion dollars on rollouts.
Operational expenses associated with an EHR implementation can range from licensing and consulting fees to money spent on hardware and training. Here are 12 health systems that have spent more than $100 million on an EHR implementation in the past four years, as reported by Becker's Hospital Review.
1. The U.S. Veterans Affairs Department finalized a contract with Cerner in May 2018, awarding the EHR vendor $10 billion over the 10 years to put the VA on the same records system as the U.S. Defense Department. The 10-year contract was increased in 2019 to $16 billion.
2. Mayo Clinic in early 2016 announced plans to move to an Epic EHR system, costing the Rochester, Minn.-based health system more than $1.5 billion over five years.
3. NYC Health + Hospitals began rolling out its $1 billion Epic EHR across its New York City-based hospital network in 2018.
4. Worcester, Mass.-based UMass Memorial Health Care in 2017 invested $700 million into a new Epic EHR system.
5. Edmonton, Canada-based Alberta Health Services, the sole health authority for Alberta, signed a $459 million agreement to deploy an Epic EHR system in September 2017.
6. Oklahoma University Medicine and its academic partner University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in February 2020 signed a five-year, $200 million contract to install an Epic EHR.
7. San Antonio, Texas-based University Health System in April 2019 invested $170 million to transition to an Epic EHR.
8. Burlington-based University of Vermont Health Network's $151 million Epic EHR implementation was approved in January 2018.
9. Kaleida Health in Buffalo, N.Y., began rolling out a $125 million Cerner EHR system in 2018.
10. The Urbana-based University of Illinois Health board of trustees in September 2017 voted to move forward in the contracting process for a $101 million Epic EHR implementation.
11. Meritus Health in Hagerstown, Md., in July 2017 announced plans to invest nearly $100 million over five years to transition its EHR to Epic.
12. Buffalo, N.Y.-based Catholic Health in February 2019 invested more than $100 million to implement an Epic EHR system.