So I went to college in Madison and know a lot of people who either worked at epic or interviewed there (including my wife). The campus was a big selling point during the interviews -- they'd give...
So I went to college in Madison and know a lot of people who either worked at epic or interviewed there (including my wife). The campus was a big selling point during the interviews -- they'd give you a tour and everything and let you go down the slide instead of the staircase and all that.
The downside is Epic is notorious for overworking their employees. My good friend who worked there for a summer internship said he'd never work there full time. My wife wasn't offered a job but interviewed for a student job and had to prepare a one hour presentation as part of her interview.
The turnover is so insane at Epic that every five years you work there, they'll give you a 30 day paid sabbatical and will cover travel expenses if you go on a trip.
My wife's cousin worked there for a while and that was her problem as well. Way overworked and not paid super well. We did get a tour of the campus when we visited her and it was pretty neat, but...
My wife's cousin worked there for a while and that was her problem as well. Way overworked and not paid super well.
We did get a tour of the campus when we visited her and it was pretty neat, but I got the vibe that it loses its charm pretty quickly when you're actually working there.
I interviewed with Epic, but took a hard pass on the requirement to live in Verona, Wisconsin. Anyone who's paid attention to the history of company towns should take warning from the isolation,...
I interviewed with Epic, but took a hard pass on the requirement to live in Verona, Wisconsin. Anyone who's paid attention to the history of company towns should take warning from the isolation, insular culture, and corporate control of the political landscape.
Epic selects hard for neurodivergent obsessives like me, and the salary/benefits are meaningful by Midwestern U.S. standards. But I'm even more turned off after reading this article. I don't want to be a toy in the fantasy playroom of an eccentric founder who has no public accountability and the proven need for control that's evaded interoperability for decades.
Listening to Epic users in hospitals is eye-opening as well. The UI is infamously user-hostile, managing interfaces is nightmarish. Running Epic requires high infrastructure and personnel overhead, astronomical licensing and configuration payments... and it's still the most capable EMR for big healthcare institutions.
Yep. In a past job I had intimate knowledge of Epic's systems and they weren't great then, aren't great now, and low likelihood to change. Some of the other "ten commandments" are probably things...
Listening to Epic users in hospitals is eye-opening as well. The UI is infamously user-hostile, managing interfaces is nightmarish. Running Epic requires high infrastructure and personnel overhead, astronomical licensing and configuration payments... and it's still the most capable EMR for big healthcare institutions.
Yep. In a past job I had intimate knowledge of Epic's systems and they weren't great then, aren't great now, and low likelihood to change. Some of the other "ten commandments" are probably things like the customer is always wrong and why do more, when we can do less.
Gentle pushback from someone who lives in the area. I believe the requirement is that you have to live within 30-45 minutes of the Epic campus. People commute from Madison, Sun Prairie, Monona,...
the requirement to live in Verona
Gentle pushback from someone who lives in the area. I believe the requirement is that you have to live within 30-45 minutes of the Epic campus. People commute from Madison, Sun Prairie, Monona, Mt, Horeb, Barneveld, Middleton, Waunakee, etc. Verona isn't a company town in that sense, but the population (for Verona but for especially Dane County) has definitely exploded since Epic's campus went in.
I interviewed with Epic back in 2021. I talked to some employees that I could contact through friends/family. I’d say that I was generally discouraged from working at Epic if I had better options....
I interviewed with Epic back in 2021. I talked to some employees that I could contact through friends/family.
I’d say that I was generally discouraged from working at Epic if I had better options. But everyone agreed that it was a solid place to build a resume for a year or so. Former employees told me that only true believers really stuck around for very long.
I didn’t get a job offer, I don’t think I was a “culture fit.”
Verona [Wisconsin] is home to the whimsical, sprawling 1,670-acre headquarters for Epic Systems, one of the biggest privately held U.S. tech companies. Epic’s software is seemingly ubiquitous across hospitals and clinics, storing the medical records of more than 280 million people in the U.S.
While the company’s workforce is tasked with the hefty responsibility of building tools to support doctors and nurses as they provide care to patients, Epic employees spend their days milling in and out of offices that look as if they were plucked straight from the pages of a sci-fi novel or children’s book.
...
Each of Epic’s 28 office building is themed. They’re clustered into mini-campuses, with names like Prairie Campus, Farm Campus, Central Park Campus, Wizards Academy Campus and Storybook Campus. The buildings have gotten more ornate over the years, which has necessitated some haggling with architects, according to Epic’s website.
...
“We compete with big tech,” Faulkner said in a testimonial. “These attributes help us hire the best staff possible. That helps us be more productive.”
...
The campus’ buildings are connected via a network of tunnels and enclosed skyways, so people don’t have to step outside to travel between them.
...
Epic is building a brand new campus, on the same grounds, that’s inspired by epic fantasies like “Game of Thrones” and “Star Wars.” The cranes were decorated with massive kites that soared high above the campus during last week’s event.
As someone who works in healthcare and health IT who has had various positions in both hospitals, HIEs and other healthcare settings. I've also interviewed with Epic once or twice. In general, I...
As someone who works in healthcare and health IT who has had various positions in both hospitals, HIEs and other healthcare settings. I've also interviewed with Epic once or twice. In general, I do not have a very positive view of Epic. It's close to a monopoly (in the US) and, in my opinion, does not really care for patients. They actively tried to block information sharing and interoperability initiatives from Uncle Sam and, I've often found they attempt to silo patient data so they can charge for access. I'm on mobile now, so I can't post links to evidence, but I will later during my lunch break.
Don't get me wrong, if I had to pick an expensive and proprietary EHR, it would be Epic, but also the alternatives are what? Cerner? They are terrible too. Medik is not bad but it lacks features that a lot of healthcare systems have come to expect. OpenEMR is also not a great option. So what choice to healthcare systems really have?
As much as people complain and moan about some kind of "universal" care. It would simplify so much overhead if the US had its own EHR system along with a national patient ID the cost savings could be huge and you would not have to deal with expensive, proprietary software like Epic.
So don't buy all of the fluff from their campus. They don't treat their employees all that well and I don't think they care for patients or providers either.
So I went to college in Madison and know a lot of people who either worked at epic or interviewed there (including my wife). The campus was a big selling point during the interviews -- they'd give you a tour and everything and let you go down the slide instead of the staircase and all that.
The downside is Epic is notorious for overworking their employees. My good friend who worked there for a summer internship said he'd never work there full time. My wife wasn't offered a job but interviewed for a student job and had to prepare a one hour presentation as part of her interview.
The turnover is so insane at Epic that every five years you work there, they'll give you a 30 day paid sabbatical and will cover travel expenses if you go on a trip.
My wife's cousin worked there for a while and that was her problem as well. Way overworked and not paid super well.
We did get a tour of the campus when we visited her and it was pretty neat, but I got the vibe that it loses its charm pretty quickly when you're actually working there.
I interviewed with Epic, but took a hard pass on the requirement to live in Verona, Wisconsin. Anyone who's paid attention to the history of company towns should take warning from the isolation, insular culture, and corporate control of the political landscape.
Epic selects hard for neurodivergent obsessives like me, and the salary/benefits are meaningful by Midwestern U.S. standards. But I'm even more turned off after reading this article. I don't want to be a toy in the fantasy playroom of an eccentric founder who has no public accountability and the proven need for control that's evaded interoperability for decades.
Listening to Epic users in hospitals is eye-opening as well. The UI is infamously user-hostile, managing interfaces is nightmarish. Running Epic requires high infrastructure and personnel overhead, astronomical licensing and configuration payments... and it's still the most capable EMR for big healthcare institutions.
Yep. In a past job I had intimate knowledge of Epic's systems and they weren't great then, aren't great now, and low likelihood to change. Some of the other "ten commandments" are probably things like the customer is always wrong and why do more, when we can do less.
Gentle pushback from someone who lives in the area. I believe the requirement is that you have to live within 30-45 minutes of the Epic campus. People commute from Madison, Sun Prairie, Monona, Mt, Horeb, Barneveld, Middleton, Waunakee, etc. Verona isn't a company town in that sense, but the population (for Verona but for especially Dane County) has definitely exploded since Epic's campus went in.
Right. Everyone I knew at Epic lived in Madison proper.
I interviewed with Epic back in 2021. I talked to some employees that I could contact through friends/family.
I’d say that I was generally discouraged from working at Epic if I had better options. But everyone agreed that it was a solid place to build a resume for a year or so. Former employees told me that only true believers really stuck around for very long.
I didn’t get a job offer, I don’t think I was a “culture fit.”
From the article:
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As someone who works in healthcare and health IT who has had various positions in both hospitals, HIEs and other healthcare settings. I've also interviewed with Epic once or twice. In general, I do not have a very positive view of Epic. It's close to a monopoly (in the US) and, in my opinion, does not really care for patients. They actively tried to block information sharing and interoperability initiatives from Uncle Sam and, I've often found they attempt to silo patient data so they can charge for access.
I'm on mobile now, so I can't post links to evidence, but I will later during my lunch break.EDIT w/links -
Here is Epic CEO's letter urging hospital leadership to reach out to HHS to stop information sharing, under the guise of "rising patient costs" and "worse patient outcomes". From this, it seems like Epic thinks patients are not intelligent enough to be trusted with what they do with their own ePHI and PHI.
Epic, and all of the other major EHR vendors had gag clauses which forced doctors to not disclose potentially dangerous bugs.
This article does a great job of summarizing a number of critiques againsts Epics stance of suppressing interoperability.
Don't get me wrong, if I had to pick an expensive and proprietary EHR, it would be Epic, but also the alternatives are what? Cerner? They are terrible too. Medik is not bad but it lacks features that a lot of healthcare systems have come to expect. OpenEMR is also not a great option. So what choice to healthcare systems really have?
As much as people complain and moan about some kind of "universal" care. It would simplify so much overhead if the US had its own EHR system along with a national patient ID the cost savings could be huge and you would not have to deal with expensive, proprietary software like Epic.
So don't buy all of the fluff from their campus. They don't treat their employees all that well and I don't think they care for patients or providers either.
I think the article should have mentioned that Epic is only present in the U.S. whereas Cerner is international