System Review: Cerner vs Epic

1. Cerner vs Epic: Battle of the EHR Titans
Health Informatics Winter Course
2018 – Group 2
Bandar A. AlGhamdi

2. Background
• When one thinks of EHRs, the discussion often starts with Epic or
Cerner.
• Hospitals often love or hate Epic or Cerner and they often
defend the choice the system made or complain that their
system made the wrong decision.
• Although the two healthcare IT vendors provide similar services,
the two companies function very differently. They are both based
in the Midwest and each serve approximately 30 percent of the
hospitals across the nation with more than 1,000 patient beds.

3. Major competitors?
- Epic and Cerner continue to dominate the healthcare industry
and this year the two health.
- Epic and Cerner hold 50% of hospital EHR market share.
- Both health IT companies scored massive contracts this year, with
Epic continuing to gain popularity among the private sector and
Cerner expanding its presence in the public sphere.
- Both healthcare IT's biggest players.

4. Foundation
Epic: Judy Faulkner is the company's founder and CEO. She
lives in Madison, Wis., and founded the company with a self-
built software in the late 1970s. She is listed as No. 236 on
Forbes' 2015 Billionaires list with an estimated net worth of $2.9
billion. She is a self-made CEO and one of the few women on
Forbes' list. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-
Madison mathematics program.
 Headquarters: The company's sprawling home base is located in
Verona, Wis., a little outside the state capital of Madison.

5. Foundation
Cerner: Neal L. Patterson is one of three co-
founders of Cerner — a company that began with a single
lab information system in 1979. He worked directly with the
company to create a full suite of healthcare applications by
the mid-1980s and took the company public in 1986. A
native of Manchester, Okla., he is a graduate of Oklahoma
State University's finance and business administration
programs.
 Headquarters: The company is based in Kansas City, Mo.,
one of the 50 largest cities in the U.S.

6. Magnitude
Annual revenue
• Epic: $1.8 billion (2013)
• Cerner: $3.4 billion (2014)
Market share for EHRs for physician practice use
• Epic: 11.6 percent
• Cerner: 3.5 percent
Number of U.S. employees
• Epic: 6,300
• Cerner: 14,200
Year founded
• Epic: 1979
• Cerner: 1979

7. Settings
Epic mostly serves large hospitals, while Cerner also owns a
comfortable percentage of the market of hospitals with
between 100 and 250 beds,
Epic EHR installations are known to cost millions of dollars,
Epic rollouts end up costing a great deal more than expected.
Unfortunately, Neither Cerner nor Epic has a great record for
smooth, successful, timely, or under-budget implementations.

8. Cerner Settings
 Designed by physicians, Cerner’s Ambulatory solution allows physicians and practice staff
access patient information and perform workflows on mobile and tablet devices and supports
voice dictation.
 Hybrid Electronic Medical Record (EMR) solution that caters to clinicians in hospitals and
ambulatory facilities and helps them to create multi-entity electronic medical records. The
solution also provides capabilities for on-premise deployment. It provides various built-in
templates that cover various specialties, thus serving a wide range of medical providers.
 Supported Operating System(s):
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS, Linux, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, Unix, IBM OS/400,
Web browser (OS agnostic), Windows 2000, Windows 8
Practice Size
• Solo Practice
• 1-10 Physicians
• 11-50 Physicians
• Over 50 Physicians

9. Epic Settings
 EpicCare is developed, implemented and supported by an in-house team. Modules include
dashboards that combine and display clinical and financial metrics as well as customizable
templates.
 EpicCare is an electronic medical recording (EMR) solution for large hospitals and healthcare
systems, certified for Meaningful Use Stages 1 and 2. Epic's market focus is large healthcare
organizations and academic medical centers. The company offers an integrated suite of healthcare
software centered on a Caché database provided by InterSystems.
 Supported Operating System(s):
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS, Linux, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, Unix, IBM
OS/400, Web browser (OS agnostic), Windows 2000, Windows 8
Practice Size
11-50 Physicians
Over 50 Physicians

10. Functionalities/ Applications
• Epic's applications support functions related to patient care, including
registration and scheduling; clinical systems for doctors, nurses,
emergency personnel, and other care providers; systems for lab
technologists, pharmacists, and radiologists; and billing systems for
insurers.
• Cerner EMR make it possible to automate the clinical operations of a
medical practice’s workflow, such as documenting diagnoses and
medications. Cerner has an EMR solution to fit every type of health
care provider. Cerner’s most popular solutions: PowerChart,
CareTracker & Cerner Millennium.

11. Functionalities/ Applications
CERNER
 Appointment Management
 Billing Management
 Clinical Workflow
 Document Management
 EM Coding
 Insurance and Claims
 Lab Integration
 Medical Templates
 Patient Demographics
 Patient History
 Referrals
 Reporting and Analytics
 Scheduling
 Voice Recognition
 e-Prescription
EPIC
 Appointment Management
 Billing Management
 Clinical Workflow
 Document Management
 Insurance and Claims
 Lab Integration
 Medical Templates
 Patient Demographics
 Patient History
 Patient Portal
 Referrals
 Reporting and Analytics
 Scheduling
 Voice Recognition
 e-Prescription

12. Health Specialties
• Epic flexible and pre-built content for specialties lets you focus on care.
Epic is made up of experts in their fields, specialty steering boards
contribute content and guide development to meet real-world specialty
needs.
• Cerner’s specialty solutions are there for you to support patients
throughout some of the most important phases of their lives. From
pregnancy to birth and childhood, Cerner’s solutions also help treat
conditions from an ear infection to a cardiac event or cancer, allowing
you to aid people who go through periods that nobody ever chooses
to experience.

13. Health Specialties
EPIC …
 Allergy and Immunology
 Bariatrics
 Cardiology
 Dermatology
 Family Medicine
 Gastroenterology
 General Practitioner
 Infectious Diseases
 Internal Medicine
 Mental and Behavioral Health
 Nephrology
 Neurology and Neurosurgery
 Obstetrics and Gynecology
 Occupational Medicine
 Oncology and Hematology
…
 Ophthalmology
 Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
 Pediatrics
 Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation
 Plastic Surgery
 Podiatry
 Pulmonology
 Radiology
 Rheumatology
 Sleep Medicine and Centers
 Speech Therapy
 Surgery
 Urgent Care
 Urology
 Vascular Diseases and Phlebology
 Other Specialties
…
 Nephrology
 Neurology and Neurosurgery
 Obstetrics and Gynecology
 Occupational Medicine
 Oncology and Hematology
 Ophthalmology
 Orthopedics
 Otolaryngology
 Pain Management
 Pediatrics
 Physical Therapy
 Plastic Surgery
 Podiatry
 Proctology
 Pulmonology
 Radiology
CERNER …
 Allergy and Immunology
 Anesthesiology
 Bariatrics
 Cardiology
 Community Health Centers
 Correctional Health
 Dentistry
 Dermatology
 Dialysis Clinic
 Endocrinology
 Family Medicine
 Gastroenterology
 General Practitioner
 Infectious Diseases
 Internal Medicine
 Mental and Behavioral Health
 Rheumatology
 Sleep Medicine and
Centers
 Speech Therapy
 Surgery
 Urgent Care
 Urology
 Vascular Diseases and
Phlebology
 Other Specialties

14. Integration
• Both Cerner and Epic are part of the privately-funded Argonaut Project. The
goal is to promote adoption of the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources
(FHIR), a set of specifications and an application programming interface (API).
• As part of its commitment to integration, Cerner has built three platforms that
integrate with each other and with external systems to connect clinical,
operational, and financial data.
• Epic has been criticized for offering no integrations and less interoperability than
its competitors. For example, Epic has refrained from joining certain marketplace
collaborations that claim to be dedicated to interoperability, such as the
CommonWell Health Alliance.

15. Health Outcomes
• Cerner is devoted to improving the quality of life for everyone we serve.
We seek to enhance communities through the development of healthy and
educated individuals. Cerner also promote entrepreneurial and innovative
environments in which its associates, clients, and partners can work to
improve the world we live in.
• Epic vision is to coordinate care across a community of providers with
Healthy Planet. Create a single longitudinal plan of care accessible to
patients, providers, care managers, and affiliates.

16. Who will have
hegemony?
 Cerner is the better option for health delivery
organizations that need access to support
24/7, great interoperability and many
integrations, and better population health
management functionality, at least for now.
 Epic is the right choice for a pleasing UI, help
with installation, and billing help, all of which
are very useful for smaller organizations with
smaller staffs.

17. The scope of Mayo's practice is
very large, so we have a lot – a lot
– of detailed decisions to make'
By Mike Miliard
February 02, 2015
What was it about Epic that made you want to try something
new?
A: We've been a longtime customer of Cerner, and they've been a
really great partner for us. As we looked at what met our needs, across
all of our practices, around revenue cycle and our interests
around patient engagement and so on, although it was a difficult
choice, in the end it was a pretty clear choice that Epic was a better fit.