Healthcare It News - February 2008 - (Page 12)

12 Healthcare IT News ■ February 2008 industry news www.HealthcareITNews.com Wal-Mart turns its healthcare focus to e-prescribing, EhRs By BerNIe MoNegaIN, Editor bentonVille, ar - Wal-Mart isn’t content with selling discount goods like diapers, paint, gasoline and, more recently, $4 prescriptions. The big-box giant now has its sights set on e-prescribing and electronic health records. “We think we can even do more with prescription costs,” Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott said last month in a talk to 7,000 man- agers. “Our approach will be based on taking out unnecessary costs while providing high quality healthcare products and services. We also believe we can help with how prescriptions are filled. We will partner with doctors and other providers to increase the number of electronic prescriptions in the U.S. And, we will provide electronic health records to United States associates and their family members – includ- ing retirees – by the end of 2010.” Scott said in the coming months, Wal-Mart would be taking action to help drive down the cost of healthcare, increase the number of electronic prescriptions and promote the use of electronic medical records. Scott delivered his talk at an annual kick-off for U.S. stores at corporate headquarters. He said the retailer would also take on energy, poverty, climate change and other issues. Last April Wal-Mart officials announced they planned to not only invest in healthcare IT, but also to apply some of what the company has learned in the retail marketplace to help lower healthcare costs for its employees – and the nation. “It occurred to us that there are lessons to be learned from other sectors that could be applied to healthcare,” said Carolyn Walton, vice president of the information systems division for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart pledged $1 million over five years to fund a new Center for Innovation in Health Care Logistics at the University of Arkansas. The intent is to create broad interest in the speedy adoption of best practices, Walton said. Wal-Mart officials also said in April they intend to contract with local hospitals and other organizations to open as many as 400 instore, IT-equipped health clinics over the next two to three years. Wal-Mart has been the target of criticism on the healthcare front, accused of avoiding healthcare benefits for its employees. Even as the company announced the new IT initiative last spring, elected leaders in Iowa called on Wal-Mart to end its “inexcusable behavior that leaves over half of its employees and their families without company healthcare.” ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: WalMart 0208 ● presIDeNT Continued from page 10 The Minimally Invasive EHR portfolio from MIE is helping physicians improve patient outcomes and reduce costs in safety net care settings, specialty practices and employee health clinics. TM EMR  RIS/PACS  Document Management  Safety Net Health  Enterprise Health e ● Connect: MIe 0208 Justin Barnes, vice president of government affairs for Greenway Medical Technologies and board member of the Electronic Health Records Vendors Association said he was pleased the president mentioned healthcare IT within the first 10 minutes of his address. “For the fifth year in a row, the president affirmed his commitment to promoting health information technology,” Barnes said. “We have worked very closely with Congress and the president’s administration on healthcare IT and electronic health record adoption and this solidifies the administration’s commitment to lowering our nation’s healthcare costs through efficiency and effectiveness while at the same time saving lives,” Barnes added. Bush praised the nation’s progress in treating malaria and AIDS in Africa and a 95 percent increase in funding for veterans’ healthcare. Throughout the speech, Bush emphasized that there is still much to be done. In the Democratic response to the president’s speech, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kan.) seemed to agree, but alluded to the president as the one to blame for putting the brakes on progress. “In spite of the attempts to convince us that we are divided as a people, a new American majority has come together,” she said. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: PreSIdeNt 0208 ● http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8597 http://www.mieweb.com/safetynet http://www.mieweb.com/safetynet http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8593 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=8675

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Healthcare It News - February 2008 Contents Hot Potato Wal-Mart Focus CIO Role Wasteland Linking Docs Katrina Work P4P Team Fire Sale? Emergency Systems Beyond Business

Healthcare It News - February 2008

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