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By Mel Duvall
Dell is joining the race to grab a piece of the $19 billion in federal stimulus spending aimed at helping hospitals and doctors implement electronic health record systems.
The company announced Thursday that it is now offering healthcare organizations an electronic medical records (EMR) package that is a one-stop combination of hardware, software and support.
The offering is designed particularly for hospitals that want to sponsor EMR for their affiliated physicians. The service will enable hospitals and practices to share patient information electronically and coordinate and streamline administration. Dell said the solution has already been piloted by Tufts Medical Center of Boston and Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston.
"The U.S. healthcare system is suffering from a digital divide that we can no longer afford: patient information that is locked away in paper records; electronic medical records solutions that are beyond the reach of most physician practices and hospitals and physicians who share patients, but not patient information," Jamie Coffin, head of Dell's healthcare and life sciences practice, said in a statement.
"With our hospital partners, we are knocking down EMR's barriers to accelerate its adoption," added Coffin. "In doing so, we'll create the communities of practices and information-sharing infrastructure necessary to achieve reform priorities today and personalized medicine in the future."
Dell is far from alone in seeking a share of the federal healthcare stimulus spending. In August, software-as-a-service pioneer Salesforce.com, purchased a stake in Practice Fusion, a San Francisco startup that provides electronic medical record applications aimed at physician practices over the Web. In July, Cisco announced it was partnering with health insurer UnitedHealth Group to build a nationwide network to support the exchange of health record information. One month earlier, GE launched a program, called Stimulus Simplicity, aimed at providing physician offices and hospitals with access to interest-free funding with deferred payments, to purchase GE EMR products.
Even Wal-Mart is in the game, announcing in March that it would partner with Dell and a startup called eClinical Works to sell an EMR service to physician practices through its Sam's Club stores.
Despite the attention that technology vendors are giving the opportunity, hospitals and physicians have been cautious about proceeding with large-scale implementations. It is estimated that less than 10 percent of U.S. physicians have a fully functional EMR system to provide real-time access to patient histories, and to streamline scheduling and billing practices. Under the stimulus package, healthcare providers who adopt EMR systems and achieve "meaningful use" by 2011 will be eligible for funding.
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