Epic EHR Review: The All-In-One Solution for Modern Medicine

Epic at a Glance

Epic Systems was founded in 1979 in Madison, Wisconsin, with a mission to develop software that enhances patient care, promotes wellness, and supports healthier generations. Today, Epic is one of the most recognized names in healthcare technology, with their electronic health record (EHR) system serving more than 325 million patients worldwide. Their platform supports a wide range of healthcare settings, including academic medical centers, community hospitals, independent practices, mental health facilities, urgent care clinics, dental clinics, rehab centers, and more.

Epic EHR Features

Inpatient care tools: These tools centralize acute and inpatient care, combining patient data with AI-assisted pathways to help clinicians act quickly and accurately.
Specialty-specific modules: The platform delivers over 60 specialty-specific modules, aligning workflows with the needs of cardiology, oncology, orthopedics, and more.
Long-term care support: Their system supports primary care by tracking preventive services, managing chronic conditions, and integrating behavioral health and telehealth.
Access and revenue cycle management: These tools coordinate post-acute and long-term care, ensuring patients move smoothly between facilities without losing care continuity.
Population health analytics: This capability powers population health management, identifying high-risk patients, closing care gaps, and incorporating social determinants of health.
Patient engagement tools: Patient engagement is strengthened through MyChart, which gives 24/7 access to health records, education, and remote monitoring.
Capacity optimization: This feature balances staff resources, frees up operating room time, and shortens patient wait times through real-time scheduling insights.
Life sciences integration: Connects providers with precision medicine, clinical trials, and specialty diagnostics directly within care workflows.
Healthcare intelligence: Uses self-service analytics, peer comparisons, and predictive modeling to support data-driven clinical and operational decisions.

Epic EHR Plans & Prices

Epic EHR does not share public pricing because costs vary based on factors like organization size, chosen modules, hosting model, data migration, and training needs.

Epic offers the following setup options:

• Full enterprise deployment: built for large hospitals and health systems, offering complete customization
• Community Connect: lets smaller practices operate on a local Epic hospital’s system
• Garden Plot: a SaaS model for small to mid-sized groups, managed directly by Epic
• Epic Sonnet: a simplified version that includes only the core features

Epic offers several pricing models to suit different healthcare organizations. The starting price for self-hosted solutions is about $1,200, while large hospitals and clinics can expect starting costs around $500,000. Monthly fees range from $200 to $35,000 depending on scale and features, and training averages about $2,000. Costs are shaped by the features selected and the average patient volume a facility manages.

Epic’s pricing structures include upfront licensing fees, subscription-based arrangements, and revenue-sharing models. Licensing fees are one-time payments for the software, subscription plans involve recurring monthly or annual charges, and revenue-sharing agreements are typically used by large health systems working with partner hospitals to offset costs. Per-user pricing also plays a role, with physician licenses averaging $5,000 to $7,000, other clinical staff around $3,000 to $5,000, and read-only access costing $500 to $1,000 per user. These costs can escalate quickly in larger facilities, making it critical to assess user needs before implementation.

Pros

Specialty-specific templates

The company delivers tailored workflows and forms for over 60 specialties, including cardiology, psychiatry, pediatrics, and orthopedics, to improve accuracy and efficiency.

Role-based user interfaces

This feature adapts the EHR experience to clinicians, administrative staff, and billing personnel, streamlining day-to-day operations across the organization.

Customizable

Their system lets teams tailor notes, orders, screens, and schedules to each role and specialty. Users can save SmartPhrases and SmartTexts for faster documentation, while departments create templates, flowsheets, order sets, decision rules, and visit types to match their needs. You can also customize MyChart branding, adjust eCheck-In steps, set revenue workqueues, edit claim rules, and build custom reports using Reporting Workbench or SlicerDicer.

Comprehensive interoperability

The system connects with labs, pharmacies, imaging centers, and third-party tools like PACS and LIS for seamless data exchange.

Comprehensive AI support across care and operations

Epic’s AI powers clinical documentation through ambient listening, predicts patient demand to optimize scheduling, assists with diagnostic interpretation, surfaces real-world evidence from millions of patient records, flags high-risk cases, speeds prior authorizations, and supports precision medicine by integrating genomic data directly into the care plan.

Cons

Steep learning curve

The platform’s extensive capabilities come with a high level of complexity, requiring significant training for new users. Onboarding often takes longer than with simpler EHR systems, as staff must learn multi-step workflows, advanced features, and specialty-specific tools before they can work efficiently.

Customization friction

While Epic supports customization, modifying templates or workflows can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. Changes often require specialized IT staff or vendor involvement, which can delay adjustments needed for evolving clinical practices or new service lines.

Performance dips during peak use

In large healthcare environments, heavy usage during peak hours can cause slower load times and reduced responsiveness. Major system updates may temporarily disrupt operations, requiring additional rounds of staff retraining and testing before workflows return to normal.

Customer Reviews

Most customer feedback for Epic EHR is positive, with many users praising their functionality, customization, and role-specific features. G2 rates the platform at 4.2 out of 5, while Capterra gives them 4.4 out of 5.

Positive reviews

Positive reviews emphasize Epic’s user-friendly design, once learned, the ability to customize templates and dashboards, and the comprehensive patient information available in one place. Several users appreciated how it streamlined documentation and scheduling, with one stating that smart phrases significantly reduced note-taking time. Another user highlighted the Care Everywhere feature, which allows secure sharing of records with other providers, improving continuity of care.

Critical reviews

Many users pointed out things like navigation complexity, too many clicks to complete tasks, and inconsistent workflows between institutions. Some users reported slow system performance or freezing, and others felt that upgrades occasionally disrupted established processes. One reviewer described difficulty locating specific information due to multiple tabs and icons, while another called the interface outdated despite its robust capabilities.

Customer Support

You can reach Epic by calling +1 608-271-9000. If you’re unsure where to start, email their general inbox at info@epic.com. Patients with MyChart questions can contact mychartsupport@epic.com, and privacy-related inquiries can be sent to PrivacyInquiries@epic.com. To stay updated, follow them on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Bluesky, and Twitter (X).

Conclusion

Epic EHR stands out as one of the most comprehensive and widely adopted electronic health record systems in the world, serving organizations of all sizes and specialties. Their strength lies in the range of features they offer, from specialty-specific modules and role-based interfaces to powerful AI capabilities that enhance both clinical and operational efficiency.

While they deliver unmatched functionality, Epic comes with notable trade-offs, including a steep learning curve, resource-heavy customization, and occasional performance slowdowns in large environments. Still, their combination of deep customization, industry-leading AI tools, and proven scalability makes them a top choice for organizations willing to invest the time and resources into mastering their potential.

If you’re exploring options beyond Epic, our list of top medical software highlights other leading providers worth considering. You can also use our comparison tool to see how they stack up side by side. For deeper insights and industry updates, visit our blog for expert articles and guides.