Epic, Cerner, Allscripts and Meditech have the largest market share of EHRs at hospitals across the nation.
Many of the largest hospitals and academic medical centers in the U.S. have implemented Epic EHR. Cerner's EHR is also used by several hospitals and health systems, and it has a contract with the Department of Defense to implement its platform for the VA. Allscripts is a pioneer of interoperability and has received accolades for its EHR and population health management solutions. Meditech is gaining ground at hospitals and healthcare providers in the U.S., particularly among community hospitals.
Here are 10 points of comparison for the three top EHR vendors in the field.
1. Annual revenue in 2019:
- Cerner: $5.7 billion
- Epic: $3.2 billion
- Allscripts: $1.7 billion
- Meditech: $493.8 million
2. Hospital market share in 2019 by KLAS:
- Epic: 29 percent
- Cerner: 26 percent
- Meditech: 17 percent
- Allscripts: 7 percent
3. Hospitals gained or lost in 2019:
- Epic: 55 hospitals gained
- Meditech: 29 hospitals gained
- Cerner: 9 hospitals lost
- Allscripts: 3 hospitals lost
4. Number of acute care multispecialty hospital beds won in 2019:
- Epic: 14,520
- Meditech: 5,407
- Cerner: 3,418
- Allscripts: 469
5. Black Book top integrated ambulatory EHR and practice management platform for hospital system 2020 ranking:
- Allscripts: No. 1
- Cerner: No. 2
- Meditech: No. 3
- Epic: No. 5
6. Ambulatory market share in June 2019 by IQVIA:
- Allscripts: No. 1
- Epic: No. 2
- Cerner: No. 7
- Meditech: N/A
7. CEOs
- Epic: Judy Faulkner is the company's founder and CEO. She lives in Madison, Wis., and founded the company with self-built software in the late 1970s. Forbes estimates her net worth at $4 billion. She is a self-made CEO and was ranked No. 4 on Forbes America's Self-Made Women 2019 list.
- Cerner: Brent Shafer is chairman of the board and CEO of Cerner, taking over the reins from co-founder Neal Patterson in January 2018. Mr. Shafer was previously CEO of Philips North America and has a background in driving value-based business models.
- Allscripts: CEO and Director Paul Black joined Allscripts in 2012 after spending 13 years with Cerner. He also has experience in leadership roles at IBM and was chairman and CEO of Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, Mo., for 16 years.
- Meditech: CEO Howard Messing joined Meditech as a programmer in 1974 and worked his way up to the chief executive role in 2010. He has experience as the company's president and COO and oversaw its steady growth over the past two decades.
8. Number of employees
- Cerner: 29,000+ in 26 countries
- Epic: 10,000
- Allscripts: 7,000 in 14 countries
- Meditech: 3,500
9. Key partnerships in the past 12 months
- Epic: The company partnered with Humana in June 2019 and Blue Cross Blue Shield in June 2020. Its partnership with Humana aims to improve interoperability and transparency between patients and providers; Humana members have seen an average $30 out-of-pocket savings per prescription since the partnership began. Epic's more recent partnership with Health Care Service Corp., the parent of five Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, will result in a new information exchange platform for patients, providers and insurers.
- Cerner: The company partnered with Amazon in July and Uber Health in October of 2019. "Our work with [Amazon Web Services] is expected to enable delivery of scalable and secure solutions in a faster, more agile way, with the power of advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning tools embedded in the workflow," Mr. Shafer said, during the company's third quarter 2019 earnings call. "Our clients can expect to see advancement in the overall user experience for consumers and care teams, as well as their overall health system and financial operations." The company's partnership with Uber aims to improve access to care. Providers can schedule Uber transportation form the Cerner EHR and the patient's location information will automatically transfer to Uber's ride request.
- Allscripts: Allscripts partnered with Apple Health Records in August 2019 to make Allscripts Sunrise, TouchWorks and Professional EHR available on Apple Health Records. In October, the company also signed a deal with New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health to design, test and release a voice-enabled EHR. In January 2020, Allscripts partnered with MyndYou to make MyndYou triaging and care management solutions available to Allscripts clients.
- Meditech: Meditech partnered with Apple Health Records and Google Cloud in October 2019 to offer its Expanse and 6.0 EHR client access on Apple Health Records. The company's EHR will is available on Google Cloud as a result of that partnership.
10. Headquarters
- Allscripts: Chicago
- Epic: Verona, Wis.
- Cerner: Kansas City, Mo.
- Meditech: Westwood, Mass.
11. Year founded
- Meditech: 1969
- Epic: 1979
- Cerner: 1979
- Allscripts: 1986
12. Original business
- Epic: Database management system for clinical care
- Cerner: Lab information systems
- Meditech: Lab information systems
- Allscripts: Medication management