The new 2024 U.S. Acute Care EHR Market Share report from KLAS shows one electronic health records vendor is leading the way as it continues to add new customers to hospitals and health systems. And you probably won’t be surprised who it is.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
According to KLAS, Verona, Wisconsin-based Epic Systems has seen its net market share increase significantly over the past year – and in fact, they are the only EHR vendor to achieve this. It also didn’t lose any customers.
With the addition of 153 new acute care customers – across health systems, freestanding hospitals and customer add-ons, Epic now has a footprint that includes more than half of all general medical beds. residing throughout the United States
“Both current and prospective large institutional customers are attracted to Epic because they view the vendor as a consistently high-performing provider of healthcare IT,” the researchers said. strong health, quality relationships, and opportunities to streamline workflows and improve clinician satisfaction.” “Large professional organizations have also turned to Epic to strengthen their IT systems.”
However, for Epic’s longtime rival, Cerner – now known as Oracle Health – the past year has been a year of attrition. According to KLAS, it saw “the largest net loss in hospital history, a result of many large multispecialty organizations choosing to leave.”
Furthermore, the report found that growth of smaller independent hospitals with 200 beds or less also slowed.
Among the hospitals that have signed up, “brand new independent customers who signed with Oracle Health in 2023 stated a desire to improve integration, strengthen relationships with exchange partners, and leverage the vendor’s broad technology base,” the researchers wrote.
According to KLAS, another legacy EHR giant, Meditech, also saw retention rates decline in 2023 – a big change from the previous year, when rates were at an all-time high.
Meditech’s traditional customer retention rate – previously 40%–50% – increased to 84% in 2022 as a large health system decided to switch from MAGIC to Expanse, the researchers wrote. . “However, in 2023, retention fell to a record low; about a quarter of their legacy losses were due to mergers and acquisitions, while the remaining losses were competitive than.”
This news contrasts with other smaller EHR players.
The KLAS report found that Altera Digital Health, which originated from the former Allscripts and is now owned by Harris, “refocused on Paragon as its primary platform for smaller hospitals, with Sunrise primarily for medium sized hospital”. “In 2023, three small health systems (including seven hospitals) contracted with Paragon; in addition, one Sunrise customer switched to Paragon.”
TruBridge, formerly known as CPSI, has acquired two new customer add-ons and three new freestanding multispecialty hospitals; Additionally, five returning customers have migrated to TruBridge EHR (formerly Evident Thrive).”
KLAS researchers said neither Azalea Health nor Medhost had any new or outright new contracts in 2023 because “energy purchasing demand among small independent hospitals has generally decreased.”
BIGGER TREND
While large health systems are among the bigger movers and shakers in 2023, that contrasts with the previous year, when smaller hospitals were driving EHR market demand.
Recognizing the need to do better to keep customers happy – to retain customers, over time – suppliers have become much more proactive in their service delivery and customer retention efforts, such as was featured in the Best of 2024 report in KLAS from earlier this year.
For example, Oracle Health has added new general AI capabilities to its EHR platform. But so is Epic.
The past year has seen some significant health system migrations – such as longtime Cerner customers Intermountain and UPMC – away from Oracle Health and toward Epic.
Other major health systems that have turned to Epic in 2023 include Boston Children’s Hospital, which announced plans to merge and consolidate its various systems with the vendor, and Northwell Health, a longtime customer of Allscripts announced in March 2023 that they would be moving to Epic.
ON PROFILE
“Acute care EHR purchases remain high throughout 2023,” KLAS researchers said in the report. “While the energy market in 2022 will be largely driven by small entities, the majority of purchases in 2023 will be the result of large specialized and multi-industry organizations making strategic decisions.” improvement.
They added: “Of the 319 hospitals affected by subsequent decisions (including migration and specialist hospital wins), 79% are part of health systems while The rest are independent hospitals.” “The key decision drivers were acquisition activity and the need to streamline IT departments and improve clinical usability.”
Mike Miliard is the executive editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the writer: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
