The news of the week in the computer world hasn't all been from Apple. Hewlett-Packard is making its first concerted effort to cash in on the rapidly expanding physician market for health IT by joining with McKesson to offer bundled hardware and EHR-practice management packages.
HP and McKesson will sell the bundles to small and mid-sized physician practices through McKesson's nationwide network of "EHR certified" value-added resellers. Tech Data, a major HP distributor, also will participate, the companies say. The move follows a similar deal between Cerner and CDW Healthcare last fall.
The resellers will offer technology assessments, installation, training and support services to physician practices, many of which lack their own IT staff. This segment of the market often chooses the software-as-a-service model for this very reason, but McKesson's various ambulatory EHR and practice management systems currently are available only as client-server products. The company is working on web-based versions of its software, however.
For more information on this deal:
- read this blog post from InformationWeek
- see this McKesson press release