Sam’s Club Unveils EHR Details

HDM Breaking News, April 6, 2009

Sam’s Club will phase in its marketing of electronic health record and practice management software from eClinicalWorks Inc. on a region-by region basis. The effort has begun in Virginia, Illinois and Georgia and will spread nationwide by year’s end, says Kenji Gjovig, Sam’s Club’s health care business development manager.

The unit of Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart announced earlier its plans to sell a package that includes, in addition to the applications: desktop computers and/or Tablet PCs and printers from Dell; installation; e-prescribing integration; specialty-specific templates; online Web seminars; five days of on-site software training and software support during the first year.

The package is priced at less than $25,000 for the first physician and about $10,000 for each of up to two additional doctors. The price will be slightly more for larger practices. Included are Web access for one year to both electronic records and practice management software through the application services provider computing model, says eClinicalWorks CEO Girish Kumar Navani. In subsequent years, the cost will be $4,000 to $6,500 per physician per year.

The marketing effort is focused on the smallest group practices, Gjovig says. Although the package will be sold through Sam’s Club’s Web site, samsclub.com/health, salespeople who call on clinics to sell memberships in the stores also will tout the new offering, Gjovig says. The stores already serve 200,000 health care providers, mainly physicians.

Westborough, Mass.-based eClinicalWorks, a 10-year-old company, now has 25,000 physicians using its software, a company spokesman says. The applications being sold through Sam’s Club are the latest release of the firm’s software and not a stripped-down version, Gjovig noted.

--Howard Anderson

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