Hershey, Pa.-based Penn State Health plans to adopt Epic’s entire suite of AI tools as the organization seeks to improve the patient and clinician experience.
The six-hospital system intends to go live with the new EHR in the fourth quarter of 2026 after beginning its implementation in June.
“We’ve been a long-term client of Oracle Health/Cerner, and they served us well for a lot of years. But as our system matured into a regional academic health system, it became obvious that we needed some additional capabilities that we didn’t think we had available to us,” Bill Reed, PhD, interim senior vice president and CIO of Penn State Health, told Becker’s.
To that end, Penn State Health has contracted for Epic’s full AI package and is prioritizing which solutions to have available at go-live and which to hold off on until the optimization period following the launch.
The health system will also be able to consolidate countless applications with Epic, leading to an immediate return on investment and decreased administrative burden for clinicians, leaders say. Penn State Health also has multiple EHRs and revenue cycle systems it will be able to sunset.
Penn State Health declined to specify a dollar figure for its Epic project but Dr. Reed said it’s in line with other organizations of its size.
The health system already spent early 2025 beefing up its staffing and forming a project team to be ready to start the install.
“We have over 100 operational work groups that we’re engaged with that are well trained to support our Epic implementation and represent Penn State Health organizationwide,” said Maryandra Walters, vice president and chief application officer of Penn State Health.
Dr. Reed said staffers are eagerly anticipating the new capabilities, while patients are looking forward to a more integrated portal experience. Improved research capabilities will benefit Penn State’s medical school, he said.
“Epic will help us build a smarter and more connected future for our health system and the academic community,” Ms. Walters said.
Penn State Health is following Epic’s “prescriptive” approach to implementation and instituting its foundational EHR, making it easier to keep the “train on the tracks,” Dr. Reed said.
“There are a lot of positive feelings about it,” he said. “Anytime you have a change this massive, there’s some trepidation, but the excitement and anticipation far outweigh that.”
