From growing its data sharing push to more health systems announcing plans to go live with its EHR system, here are seven updates on Epic’s operations, software products, and partnerships reported by Becker’s Hospital Review in October:
- Pam Ramhofer, CIO of Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Health Care System told Becker’s that the organization plans to spend $160 million on a new Epic EHR over the next five years.
- Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Heritage Medical Associates will link their Epic EHR systems beginning Nov. 1.
- In October, Epic announced plans to sunset its Workshop program as the EHR giant moves away from codeveloping with startups.
- The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services launched Epic EHRs across all 13 state-operated psychiatric hospitals and residential treatment facilities.
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was one of the first organizations to pilot Epic’s new phenotyping AI tool.
- Epic no longer negotiates prices for its EHR software — a policy that has surprised and pleased some health systems. Founder and CEO Judy Faulkner said in an Oct. 13 blog post that the company ended price negotiations in the early 1980s after noticing many clients chose not to haggle.
- Eighteen Epic-using healthcare organizations joined the federally backed Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) in September, according to Epic. The move expands nationwide data sharing, with over 1,000 hospitals and health systems now connected to TEFCA through Epic.
