Cerner Leads “Big EMR” Market, Epic in “Small EMR” Market, Says Kalorama Information Report
ROCKVILLE, Md., May 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Kalorama Information released its annual report on the state of the electronic medical records industry and found market share changed as players dropped out. The healthcare market research publisher found that Cerner leads the global EMR market with 17% of the market, and Epic held the #2 spot. Allscripts and GE Healthcare were third and fourth respectively. But Kalorama noted that when the overall EMR market is segmented into big healthcare systems and smaller hospitals and large physician practices, Epic leads there. However, no one company has majority share and there are scores of competitors. The market share assessment was made in Kalorama’s report, EMR 2018. The Market for Electronic Medical Records (Physician and Hospital EHR Market, Geographic Regions, Trends and Issues).
“There are many EMR providers, so it’s important to look at where they operate,” said Mary Anne Crandall, the report’s author. “In the competition for large healthcare systems, it’s the Top Four EMR companies mainly participating with some exceptions. If you focus on small hospitals, you’ve got Cerner and Epic but also MEDITECH is a factor. When it’s physician practices, you see Epic and Allscripts but also NextGen, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, NueMD – a lot of competitors.”
Cerner garnered the top position with 17.3% market share reaching revenues of $5.1 billion in 2017. The company is continuing to add new business and add to its services by adding CernerITWorks, a suite of services that improve the ability of hospital IT departments to meet their organization’s needs. A second example is Cerner RevWorks, which includes solutions and services to help healthcare organizations with their revenue cycle functions. The company is very strong in the hospital IT market. The company’s acquisition of Siemens IT was a major move that influenced advancement of Cerner’s market share. Its success securing of the DoD contract also helped to move Cerner forward.
Epic built on its market position with 8.8% of the market. The company is the vendor for Kaiser Permanente and many other large healthcare companies and has many new innovative solutions that are of interest to large hospitals, capturing a greater share of the new business in the EMR market than rivals. It is anticipated that Epic will continue to gather market share attempting to add to its ambulatory market share as well. The company has one of the most complete enterprise EHRs with an excellent record of accomplishment. The company has a strong customer service record and a consistent record for making realistic promises and being able to deliver on them.
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions climbed the ladder after its merger with Misys and acquisition of Eclipsys securing 6.1% market share. In 2017, Allscripts bought McKesson’s EHR technology, part of the Enterprise Information Solutions business unit that includes the Paragon EHR system. This will allow Allscripts to offer a stronger hospital offering, especially among smaller hospitals and health systems.
“In the physician office arena, competition is fierce but the leader in this arena seems to be Epic,” said the report’s author Mary Anne Crandall. “The company is aggressively filling the gaps in their program by either acquiring technology or developing it to meet the needs.”
Less-known but competitive EMR providers identified in Kalorama Information’s reporting include Amazing Charts, Kronos, Greenway Health, and eMDs.