Epic's design philosophy from the beginning was "one patient record" for the whole hospital. Everything being well integrated has been a standout feature over the competition for a long time. An acquired product would have to be rewritten to work with the database. And since healthcare is such a dense field, a new product is more than just code, it's also ___domain expertise which would need to be integrated into the company.

Since Epic has good relationships with its customers, working with them to build that expertise from the ground up is considered better.