I have quite a bit of history writing about the various Dell EMR offerings and also the Practice Fusion Free EMR. So, you can imagine my interest when I saw the announcement that Practice Fusion and Dell were partnering to offer a free EMR on Dell hardware.

Of course, this is kind of a no brainer for Dell. At least if they like the Practice Fusion EMR product. Dell is all about getting distribution for it’s hardware. Why not bundle that hardware with a Free EMR? As long as it doesn’t hurt Dell’s existing EMR partnerships with: Allscripts, NextGen and eCW then it seems good for Dell. Dell obviously has a big interest in healthcare IT with all these EMR partnerships along with their purchase of Perot Systems.

I did have a few questions about the Practice Fusion side which I posed to Ryan Howard, Chairman and CEO of Practice Fusion. The following are my questions and his answers:

Will Dell be marketing the Practice Fusion EMR as well, or is this mostly just a Practice Fusion tie in with Dell hardware?
Ryan: The strength of our partnership with Dell is that it is a true joint program. Both Dell and Practice Fusion are promoting the affordable EMR bundles for physicians. Dell through their 866-Dell-EMR hotline and on their Dell Healthcare website. Practice Fusion through www.practicefusion.com/dell. Both companies are dedicating marketing resources to reaching the small medical practice sector with this offer.

Why would a doctor buy the Dell products through Practice Fusion instead of just on their own? Do you offer a better discount?
Ryan: Doctors get a significant discount through Dell/Practice Fusion over the general Dell retail prices. It varies per piece of hardware, but is as much as 40% off. We directly negotiated these deals for our user community and Dell’s team tested each piece of hardware to make sure it would work well with Practice Fusion. You can see all the discounts here.

Isn’t it a little ironic that the “Free EMR” now has a link to “Apply for financing”?
Ryan: No. Although Practice Fusion’s EMR is free, doctors still often need to purchase new computers, scanners, printers, etc. Even with the Dell discounts, it can add up quickly for a small medical practice – the Dell financing deal relieves that last bit of financial pressure from the practice and gives them some flexibility on repayment.

Full Disclosure: Practice Fusion is an advertiser on this site. Although, they didn’t pay me to write this blog post or filter the questions I asked Ryan in anyway. I just love to post anytime I see Dell and EMR in the same sentence.