Epic is one of the most dominant companies in healthcare, managing the medical records of more than two-thirds of the US population and determining how doctors document and deliver care every day. The EHR vendor currently covers more than half of the country’s acute multi-specialty hospital beds and generated $5.7 billion in revenue last year.
During a talk at Forbes‘ Healthcare Summit in New York City on Thursday, Judy Faulkner, CEO and billionaire co-founder of Epic, shared her thoughts on how the company has been able to achieve its success.
Unlike many big tech companies, Epic built its empire without venture capital, splashy acquisitions or a public listing, and Faulkner has been fiercely protecting this independence since the company launched in 1979.
“In fact, my estate plan, which covers the voting of my shares, has voting rules and says you can never vote to go public or be acquired. And we have three CEOs of our clients, who are called trust protectors, and their job is to sue anyone who doesn’t follow the voting rules,” he said.
Epic’s independence allowed the company to make long-term decisions without pressure from investors or quarterly earnings reports, Faulkner said.
She and the rest of Epic’s leadership have deliberately avoided traditional MBA-driven thinking. For example, Faulkner noted that Epic has never had budgets.
“We tell them: if you need it, buy it. If you don’t need it, don’t buy it. And that works well,” he said.
At the end of the day, she attributes much of Epic’s success to the ambition behind its original vision: creating software that tracks a person’s clinical information in the past, present and future. And as healthcare delivery evolves, Faulkner noted that Epic is adapting to manage data in all settings, not just inpatients or outpatients.
Many competitors have focused on parts of care, while Epic has sought continuity across the entire patient experience, he said.
Now, Faulkner said Epic’s next chapter will depend on how it leverages the huge data sets flowing through its ecosystem, particularly as artificial intelligence tools begin to transform clinical decision-making.
Photo: Sergio Mendoza Hochmann, Getty Images