Fall 2026 brings a wave of large Epic go-lives at UPMC, Northwell, ChristianaCare and others

Becker's Hospital Review's September 10, 2026 roundup of the year's biggest EHR switches shows a busy fall. UPMC planned the second wave of its Epic conversion for October 3, consolidating nine EHRs and about 6 million patient records. ChristianaCare planned an Epic launch the same day, Freeman Health System scheduled an October 24 go-live, and Sarasota Memorial planned a roughly $160 million enterprisewide Epic go-live in October. Northwell Health's third wave, part of a $1.2 billion migration across 28 hospitals, was set for November. Earlier in the year, Adventist Health went live on Epic across 27 hospitals, HCA expanded Meditech Expanse, and the VA continued its Oracle Health rollout.

These projects affect more than the hospitals themselves. Independent practices, labs, imaging centers, home health agencies and other partners that exchange data with these systems may see changes to referral workflows, portals, interfaces and how records are sent and received. The costs are real too: Becker's notes Kaleida Health's roughly $170 million Epic transition contributed to a quarterly operating deficit.

If you work with a health system that is converting, ask its IT or outreach team now about the go-live date, which interfaces will change, whether you will need new portal credentials, and what downtime to expect. Make sure your own EHR vendor knows about the change so interfaces can be tested before cutover. Have a paper or manual fallback ready for the go-live window.

For organizations planning their own switch, these timelines show that large conversions are typically done in phases over multiple years.

Sources

1.Becker's Hospital Review ↗beckershospitalreview.com

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Epic Systems

The dominant electronic health record platform in the United States — used by 38%+ of US patients, including most academic medical centers, large health systems, and children's hospitals. Epic MyChart is the most widely adopted patient portal in the US with 300M+ patient records. The Epic integrated suite covers inpatient EHR, ambulatory, revenue cycle, patient scheduling, population health (Cogito Analytics), and care coordination — making Epic the operating system of most large US health systems. Everything else in a hospital's technology stack is evaluated based on whether it integrates with Epic. Private company, founded by Judy Faulkner. Not available through any channel — sold direct to health systems only. HIPAA, SOC 2, FedRAMP In Process.

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Fall 2026 brings a wave of large Epic go-lives at UPMC, Northwell, ChristianaCare and others

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