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