By Healthcare Facilities Today

Should healthcare operate more like Walmart? An article in MIT Technology Review  said it healthcare information technology revolution may turn the healthcare system into a superstore experience for many people.

The article's author, David Cutler, professor of applied economics at Harvard University, said adding the electronic health record (EHR) component to hospitals and physician practices will make healthcare more like retail or finance. 

"Healthcare will be provided by big institutions, in a more standardized fashion, with less overall cost, but less of a personal touch," he said in the article, pointing out that Walmart replaced the small drugstore because it was using IT better.

According to the article, EHR adoption by physicians was at nearly 80 percent in 2012. 

"With an electronic backbone in place, one doesn't need to see a doctor for every issue," Cutler said. "There is little the primary care doctor does that can't - and increasingly isn't - being done by a nurse practitioner, perhaps in a clinic in a Walmart or CVS."

Read the article.