Summary
Wal-Mart is seeking to bring Electronic Medical Records to the most difficult physicians to reach--those in the smallest offices. They are seeking to charge under $25,000 for the first physician in a practice and then only about $10,000 for each additional doctor. Of course, it certainly remains to be seen whether this strategy can really work--much less that these physicians will use this technology in ways which will improve quality, safety and efficiency. Nevertheless, if the smallest physician offices are penetrated (where most of American Medicine is still practiced), then this move could potentially make the dream of near universal electronic medical records in the next decade, if not sooner, an actual probability.
Analysis
Wal-Mart will team with Dell for computers (desktop or tablet) and eClinical Works, a fast growing Boston area company, for the software. If EMRs truly could be implemented successfully for this much and the physicians in these small practices could still qualify for the $44,000 to $65,000 (for early adopters in particular regions with certain levels of public payor patients), then this could be a "game changer" (paraphrasing David Brailer, M.D., Ph.D., the first National Health IT Coordinator).
Unless other traditional health IT companies can cut similar deals either with Wal-Mart, or potentially other "relatively comparable" retailers and distribution channels, they may be hard-pressed to compete with the Wal-Mart, eClinical Works and Dell package. Companies that may need to scramble to forge similar deals of their own now as a result of this deal include:
1. General Electric;
2. Quality Systems, Inc.;
3. McKesson;
4. Allscripts; and
5. Siemens.
