Wal-Mart Inc announced on Wednesday it is partnering with computer giant Dell Inc. and software maker eClinicalWorks to launch a bundled electronic health records package for doctors, including installation and maintenance.

The system will be offered through Sam's Club, Wal-Mart's wholesale branch, which has “a long history of serving small business and over 200,000 medical professionals who are members,” spokeswoman Susan Koehler said.

“Because of our volume, our size and our relationships we can leverage what we do for our members every day into this service,” said spokesperson Susan Koehler, in a telephone interview from the company's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters.

The Wal-Mart initiative would cost less than $25,000 for the first doctor, and about $10,000each for additional physicians in a medical practice, according to several published reports. Less than 20 percent of the US physicians use electronic medical records, many of them complaining about the upfront costs of going digital and the daunting technological hurdles for small business.

Under the terms of the deal, Dell will provide computers and other hardware while eClinicalWorks will provide and install the software. Wall-Mart will be the coordinator of the whole process.

“We feel a great need. We feel the timing is right given our country's goals for health care reform. This will enable small town physicians to have greater access to health information technology,” said Koehler.