Attention Wal-Mart Doctors

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I wondered if it was something I ate. Maybe I am not getting enough sleep, or someone slipped something into my coffee. I don’t know, but yesterday I saw the following headline:

Wal-Mart Plans to Market Digital Health Records System.

No, it wasn’t on The Onion, it was actually in the New York Times, which doesn’t have a history of doing gag articles, so it must really be true.

The company plans to team its Sam’s Club division with Dell for computers and eClinicalWorks, a fast-growing private company, for software. Wal-Mart says its package deal of hardware, software, installation, maintenance and training will make the technology more accessible and affordable, undercutting rival health information technology suppliers by as much as half.

Whoa.

walmart_01

Sam’s Club? I can get a slush and polish sausage while getting an EMR? Do they sell them in bulk so that the academic institutions can get a discount? Do you go to Sam’s to get a “Big Box of EMR?”

Yes, it turns out:

The Sam’s Club offering, to be made available this spring, will be under $25,000 for the first physician in a practice, and about $10,000 for each additional doctor. After the installation and training, continuing annual costs for maintenance and support will be $4,000 to $6,500 a year, the company estimates.

I suppose this is a step forward. I can see all sorts of things Wal-Mart can do once they have accomplished putting a cheap EMR in every doctor’s office.

Endoscopy suites next to the Tire Center.
Big Barrel O’ Botox
“Equate” brand Vaccines
Senior citizens standing at the end of the aisles doing rapid strep tests and handing out sample hemoccult cards.

There are many interesting possibilities.

Now we wait for the K-Mart/Allscripts deal and the Target/GE Centricity alliance. I can just imagine two internists fighting each other over EMR licenses on Black Friday, or urologists lining up outside to get the big sale on cystoscopes.

It’s a brave new world, folks.

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Joseph Kim, MD, MPH

It is a common marketing tactic to place your medical office in or near a shopping center. Now, I wonder if the opposite trend will occur.

Fizzlemed

I don't shop at Walmart, save the "I'm deathly ill and need _____ and Walmart is the only place open I feel comfortable driving under the influence of cold meds." While I am a poor college student who now waits tables to pay the bills, I happily pay more at a locally-owned grocery store for my fruits and veg. No offense if you are one, but who wakes up and says, "When I grow up, I want to be a doctor.... and work at Walmart!"? Phew, what'll they think of next? I say, if you can avoid it at any cost, do.

Ken O

It does have advantages; the anaesthesiologists will love having ORs near a supply of puzzle magazines! :D

Shelley

eMDs is cheaper and a better product than eClinical (I demo'd them all b4 buying)

Rob

eClinicalworks is actually a fairly reputable EMR product. They are not jumping in with a generic brand. I am really not opposed to this - I just saw it as a good opportunity to make fun of them.

Moof

This is just about as good as their walk in clinics. Ugh! Maybe their clinics are why they went into EMRs.

Don't know where any of this is going, but I'm not too confident about it altogether. I do all of my shopping at Wal-Mart because I have to, not because of the quality of the items I get. I'm hoping that their EMRs don't fall into the norm quality that Wal-Mart usually provides. :op

Amanda B

They were the first to market $4 prescriptions weren't they? To compete our NW version of WalMart/Target - Fred Meyer - now does the same thing. I'm happy to save $90 a year. (or more) Maybe it will force medical companies to be more competitive in pricing and product quality.