A journey inside Epic Techniques’ legendary and sprawling campus, a world away from Wall Road

Dorothy Gale was proper — the Land of Oz just isn’t in Kansas. Moderately, it is nestled throughout the rolling inexperienced fields of Verona, Wisconsin, a city of almost 16,400 individuals situated about 10 miles southwest of the capital metropolis of Madison.

Verona is house to the whimsical, sprawling 1,670-acre headquarters for Epic Techniques, one of many largest privately held U.S. tech firms. Epic’s software program is seemingly ubiquitous throughout hospitals and clinics, storing the medical data of greater than 280 million individuals within the U.S.

Whereas the corporate’s workforce is tasked with the hefty accountability of constructing instruments to help docs and nurses as they supply care to sufferers, Epic staff spend their days milling out and in of workplaces that look as in the event that they have been plucked straight from the pages of a sci-fi novel or kids’s e-book.

A yellow brick highway impressed by “The Wizard of Oz” winds via the hallways of a gleaming, emerald inexperienced constructing. Big chocolate chips mark the entryway to the chocolate manufacturing unit, and a mischievous cat grins via the window of a constructing guarded by life-sized taking part in playing cards.  

Final week, hundreds of health-care executives descended on Epic’s sprawling campus for the corporate’s annual Customers Group Assembly, partially to listen to about new merchandise and upcoming initiatives. This yr’s theme was “storytime,” and Judy Faulkner, the corporate’s 81-year-old CEO, took the stage dressed as a swan, full with a plume of feathers in her hair.

Faulkner, a reserved mathematician who based Epic in a basement in 1979, informed the gang that the encircling buildings and their repairs account for 8% of the corporate’s whole bills. However she made the plain level, that it is loads cheaper for Epic to purchase land and construct in Verona than it will be in a tech hub like San Francisco, Seattle or New York. And on this small midwestern city, the corporate is way from huge metropolis distractions.

“Most of us in software program improvement are lively sci-fi readers,” Faulkner mentioned throughout her keynote. 

For public market buyers, Epic has all the time been considerably of a fantasy.

The corporate, with its 14,000-person workforce, does not observe a preordained funds, has made zero acquisitions and by no means accepted any funding from enterprise capitalists. It abides by its personal set of Ten Commandments, in keeping with its web site, the primary of which is, “don’t go public.”

Epic generated income final yr of $4.9 billion. Cerner, Epic’s high rival within the digital medical data market, went public in 1986 and was acquired by Oracle in 2022 for over $28 billion. In accordance with Oracle’s financials, Cerner contributed $5.9 billion in income in fiscal 2023.

The S&P 500’s sub-index of software program and companies firms trades for 9 occasions income. On the common, that may give Epic a valuation of roughly $45 billion.

Faulkner does not take care of a Cerner-like consequence. Epic’s second commandment, in any case, is “don’t be acquired.”

“Why be owned by individuals whose curiosity is primarily return of fairness?” Faulkner mentioned onstage final week.

Touring Epic’s campus, it is clear that the corporate exists a universe away from Wall Road.

Every of Epic’s 28 workplace constructing 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 extra ornate through the years, which has necessitated some haggling with architects, in keeping with Epic’s web site.

Convention room chairs match their buildings’ intricate themes. And whereas the campus’ dinosaurs, fits of armor and its functioning carousel are enjoyable to look at, in addition they serve a function. Faulkner says her plan was to construct a pleasant setting that would appeal to and encourage expertise and to make sure that her staff have the quiet area they must be productive, in keeping with a collection of testimonials on Epic’s web site.  

“We compete with huge tech,” Faulkner mentioned in a testimonial. “These attributes assist us rent one of the best employees doable. That helps us be extra productive.”

Faulkner says particular person workplaces must be accessible to each employee who needs one. With the overwhelming majority of the corporate’s workforce exhibiting up day by day to headquarters, some individuals double up, since hiring usually outpaces building.

Those that wish to escape the workplace altogether, can hop on one of many firm’s 600 cow-print bikes to take conferences from a treehouse, slide down a rabbit gap or seize lunch in a practice automobile. 

A universe underground

Epic’s handle gives the primary clue of its netherworld existence. The corporate is situated at 1979 Milky Manner, a nod to the date of its inception and Faulkner’s affinity for a celestial theme.

Guests are greeted by an indication that reads “Epic Intergalactic Headquarters” as they journey down a highway that winds between buildings and huge fields of inexperienced. Round 750 acres of Epic’s campus are lively farmland sprinkled with 42 sheep, 14 cows and a donkey.   

Nearly all of the corporate’s parking constructions are underground, which helps the campus keep a powerful really feel from above. It additionally means staff do not have to fret about scraping snow or ice off of their vehicles through the bitter midwestern winter. 

Even when not parking, staff aren’t any strangers to the underground. The campus’ buildings are linked through a community of tunnels and enclosed skyways, so individuals do not must step outdoors to journey between them. 

Workers are additionally required to attend a month-to-month employees assembly in an underground auditorium referred to as Deep House. The conferences final for round two hours, and staff current tasks and talk about business developments.

They all the time embrace a grammar lesson, too, Faulkner informed the Customers Group Assembly within the auditorium, which opened in 2013 and might seat round 11,400 individuals. The room is a feat of engineering, as there aren’t any pillars holding it up.

To get to Deep House, guests should descend via ranges of the Earth. The completely different ranges of the constructing are named Sky, Grass, Dust, Rock, Magma and Core. The foyer outdoors the auditorium is impressed by “The Lord of the Rings” collection, and the phrase “valuable” is scrawled ominously on the wall in big, glowing purple letters.   

Sci-fi references are in every single place. There is a cafeteria referred to as 42, which is the reply to the query of life, the universe and every thing within the “The Hitchhiker’s Information to the Galaxy.” The Wizards Academy Campus attracts clear inspiration from “Harry Potter,” and has its personal King’s Cross practice station, big chess set and assortment of unruly portraits.  

Epic is constructing a model new campus, on the identical grounds, that is impressed by epic fantasies like “Recreation of Thrones” and “Star Wars.” The cranes have been adorned with huge kites that soared excessive above the campus throughout final week’s occasion.

Although every workplace constructing sports activities its personal distinctive theme, the skeleton of the bodily constructions are all very related. Lengthy hallways of workplaces are damaged up by the occasional convention room, and most buildings are not more than three tales tall, a design selection that Faulkner says is meant to advertise in-person conferences.

The Prairie Campus, house to the oldest workplaces at Epic, has buildings named after celestial our bodies like stars, planets and galaxies.  

On the Storybook Campus, the constructing referred to as Thriller appears to be like like an previous mansion, the place one may simply think about Sherlock Holmes wandering the halls. The Castaway constructing resembles a ship, and its inside is filled with nautical decor.

The partitions in most of the buildings are adorned from ground to ceiling. Trinkets, ceramics, mosaics and work sourced from native artists are displayed at each flip.

Wandering the grounds through the Customers Group Assembly, it was straightforward to neglect that Epic is a software program firm.

Nonetheless, on the skin of its fantasy campus, medical professionals and their sufferers have very real-world wants from this huge know-how vendor. And there are many very actual critics.

Epic has for years been accused of dragging its toes round interoperability efforts that may assist streamline the trade of affected person data between distributors.

Well being-care information within the U.S. has traditionally been siloed and troublesome to maneuver round, as clinics, hospitals and well being programs can retailer their data in a wide range of codecs throughout dozens of various distributors. The information can also be protected by federal legal guidelines just like the Well being Insurance coverage Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.

Oracle, which is now Epic’s chief rival, says Epic is fiercely protecting over its turf. In a Could weblog put up, Oracle Government Vice President Ken Glueck wrote that “everybody within the business understands that Epic’s CEO Judy Faulkner is the one largest impediment to EHR interoperability.”

Epic has of late been serving to the federal authorities set up a information trade community referred to as the Trusted Alternate Framework and Frequent Settlement, or TEFCA, which goals to iron out each the authorized and technical necessities for sharing sufferers’ information at scale. Epic mentioned final month that it is planning on shifting all of its prospects to TEFCA by the tip of subsequent yr.

However the firm nonetheless plans to make use of its intensive proprietary community. At its Customers Group Assembly, Epic introduced a lot of new generative synthetic intelligence options for its Cosmos platform, which is a deidentified affected person dataset that clinicians can use to help remedy and conduct analysis.

Seth Hain, Epic’s senior vp of analysis and improvement, spoke to reporters after the keynote in a gathering room adorned like a lodge. Hain had simply introduced a lofty demo to the viewers the place an AI agent evaluated his restoration after a supposed wrist surgical procedure by cross-referencing information from Cosmos.

He mentioned these types of instruments might be prepared in as quickly as a number of years.

“The know-how is progressing very quickly,” Hain mentioned.

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