Friday
Mar202009
« Move over healthcare, here comes Walmart »
Friday, March 20, 2009 at 12:17AM
Years ago the world's largest retailer changed the retail game. Now they want to do the same with electronic health records (EHR). How low cost clothing, food, and appliances will translate in the healthcare world is up for debate. And Walmart isn't going it alone. They have partnered with Dell and eClinicalWorks.
Dell will supply PC's, while eClinicalWorks will provide the software and training. And what does Walmart bring to the table? I guess marketing power and distribution. And perhaps investment capital.
The cost per physician is $25,000 according to the New York Times. Not the typical Walmart prices you're used to seeing but it's relative I guess.
What is truly interesting is yet another big player introducing healthcare services on the internet. Other big players are Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault for personal health records. This is a significant push on the healthcare industry to do business in new ways. For many, that is a breath of fresh air.
Healthcare is typically slow to adopt new technologies and methods for running their business. Surgens, ERs, labs, and specialists probably use the latest gadget to save a life; I'm talking about the business side of healthcare. Many organizations are still using manual processes, like paper, fax and email, to move information around. With those manual methods, security is non-existant. People can easily email files home (or elsewhere) and you wouldn't know where or when. Manual effort is not efficient. Highly paid and educated people should be 100% focused on patient care and doing less meanial and manual tasks.
The Obama plan for a $19 billion injection into healthcare information technology (from the stimulus package) could do a lot of good for the industry. However even with the best of intentions of government, the injection could also end up being used to pay companies pushing old technologies or simply wasted on large consulting projects that either fail or more likely go over budget.
Let's hope a large portion of the stimulus injection is put towards business and technological improvements that make sense and are focused on growth into the next generation.
Dell will supply PC's, while eClinicalWorks will provide the software and training. And what does Walmart bring to the table? I guess marketing power and distribution. And perhaps investment capital.
The cost per physician is $25,000 according to the New York Times. Not the typical Walmart prices you're used to seeing but it's relative I guess.
What is truly interesting is yet another big player introducing healthcare services on the internet. Other big players are Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault for personal health records. This is a significant push on the healthcare industry to do business in new ways. For many, that is a breath of fresh air.
Healthcare is typically slow to adopt new technologies and methods for running their business. Surgens, ERs, labs, and specialists probably use the latest gadget to save a life; I'm talking about the business side of healthcare. Many organizations are still using manual processes, like paper, fax and email, to move information around. With those manual methods, security is non-existant. People can easily email files home (or elsewhere) and you wouldn't know where or when. Manual effort is not efficient. Highly paid and educated people should be 100% focused on patient care and doing less meanial and manual tasks.
The Obama plan for a $19 billion injection into healthcare information technology (from the stimulus package) could do a lot of good for the industry. However even with the best of intentions of government, the injection could also end up being used to pay companies pushing old technologies or simply wasted on large consulting projects that either fail or more likely go over budget.
Let's hope a large portion of the stimulus injection is put towards business and technological improvements that make sense and are focused on growth into the next generation.
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