Friday, March 13, 2009

Walmart to Sell Digital Health Records


You've probably heard that Walmart is getting into the e-health record space by selling eClinicalWorks. This Electronic Health Record (EHR or EMR) is a CCHIT Certified system (for 2008) and includes a suite of several different options. According to the NY Times, this move by Walmart is to target small physician offices. Speaking of Walmart, have you noticed that they've gotten rid of the hyphen between Wal and Mart? Now they're just Walmart. Anyways, the bigger question remains: will more and more physicians embrace EMRs just because it's available from Walmart of Sam's Club? Plus, what about all those people who hate Dell computers? (I'm not one of them, but I seem to meet them all the time. Some people really have strong opinions about specific PC manufacturers. Maybe that will change with the new Dell Adamo.) With only 17% of the physicians using EHRs, there is a huge marketplace to sell and offer EHRs to those who may lack those strong computer skills. Once BestBuy gets involved in this competition, you'll start seeing a lot more of those "Geek Squad" vehicles around. If you're looking to break into the Health IT industry, maybe you should get a job at Walmart selling EHR solutions and acting as an EHR consultant. I'm sure that eClinicalWorks is bolstering their support staff and preparing for all those phone calls.

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