Epic Continues to Dominate Cerner in Battle for EHR Market Share

Epic Systems, the leading electronic health record (EHR) vendor, continues to gain market share and expand its dominance over rival Cerner. 

According to new data from KLAS Research, Epic picked up 434 hospital clients from 2017 to 2022, while Cerner added just 99. More critically, Epic gained over 94,000 hospital beds in that period, while Cerner lost nearly 8,000. 

Cerner has struggled with key losses among large health systems, with 15 choosing Epic in 2022 alone. Meanwhile, Epic has focused on consolidating power by winning contracts with major hospitals amid widespread industry consolidation. 

While Cerner has picked up some smaller and standalone hospitals, the company has failed to innovate its platform technology at the pace required to compete with Epic. Cerner faces criticism that it requires extra purchases for new capabilities rather than integrating them into its core EHR system. 

Epic's momentum shows little sign of slowing. With its resources and robust R&D capabilities, the company appears poised to continue dominating the critical large-system market segment. Cerner faces an uphill battle to turn around declining market share trends. 

The EHR world continues to be a story of the "big getting bigger," and Epic is increasing its lead over rivals like Cerner with every major hospital system it adds to its expanding customer list. For the near future, this remains a decidedly one-sided battle. 

Main Points: 

• Epic is the dominant #1 EHR vendor, gaining market share and adding almost 100,000 hospital beds from 2017-2022.  

• Cerner is the #2 vendor but has been losing market share and beds, with key losses to Epic among larger health systems. 

• Epic is focused on large health systems and gaining share in hospital consolidations. 

• Cerner struggles with updating its platform and has mostly added smaller, standalone hospitals. 

• Cerner faces challenges in pivoting its strategy and platform to compete with Epic's momentum. Share