Sam’s Club to Market E-Medical Records System

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores appears poised to hone in on part of President Obama’s stimulus bill with the news that Sam’s Club is partnering with Dell computers and eClinicalWorks to bundle an electronic medical records system to physicians, according to a report in The New York Times yesterday.

The government’s stimulus sets aside $19 billion for health care information technology systems and offers incentives for doctors to adopt e-health records. The e-medical records system from Sam’s Club includes hardware, software, installation, maintenance and training. It will be targeted to the 200,000 medical professionals who are Sam’s Club members. The system will cost $25,000 for the first doctor in a practice and $10,000 for the second and third, according to the report.

The system is said to be half the cost of other systems now available. Sam’s Club plans to roll out the system in the next few months.

“Wal-Mart is astutely positioning itself in a variety of ways to serve the health and wellness sector. It shows a smart judgment to tap onto the health-conscious tipping point. It’s a bold and unique move,” said Art Turock, a consultant based in Kirkland, Wash., who follows Wal-Mart.

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