As I’ll be discussing shortly in the next show this week, some things are best blogged, while others are best podcast. Designing your website to draw and retain more patients definitely falls in the “read all about it” category.
The key is to have a clean, smart looking website that will represent your practice on the internet — or at least your podcast, if you’re only looking to park your shows there. Increasingly, more and more folks will be researching their choices, especially costly ones like healthcare, via the internet: internet access and ease of use are rising, and what’s not to like about an info gathering tool that’s “on” 24/7, from any room with an internet connection, about any topic at any point in history in the known universe? Your current patients may have found you via word of mouth, your closeness to their home or work, or because their employer picked your group.
But your future patients may need better reasons than those, especially if they opt for the newer high-deductible PPO plans, or otherwise have more of their healthcare costs being diverted back onto themselves by their plans/employers, as is the growing national trend. Having a professional looking internet presence may be key in distinguishing you from your competition.
I’ll get more into this into future blog posts, but for now, give some thought to either updating your site if you already have one, or getting a website if you don’t yet. (If you have a modicum of interest, it is quite possible to do this yourself using a blogging platform like WordPress; if studying even basic web design isn’t your thing, consider hiring the person that your hospital used for its site — contact the IT department — or whomever designed any of your favorite websites.)
Of course, your site should be able to host podcasts (as well as blog entries like this one).
And for reasons that will become clear, it should also be updatable easily, since you will want to post new and timely info on it that will be not only educational, but social and thought provoking as well. The days of your site being an online version of a Yellow Pages ad should be long, long over. Especially since that’s what most of your colleagues are doing, if they are doing anything at all.
The April 9, 2007 issue of American Medical News touches on this in a nice overview article, “Web Site Refresh.” While I disagree that finding a professional website designer is absolutely necessary, it’s not a bad idea if you’re not into tinkering with layouts, page design, and blogging software like WordPress.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Agreed on your comment of the website being available 24/7. Convenience is of great value. I still think the patients would be overloaded with information if they try to decifer what’s good for them, or what’s best, so I would be most succinct and brief as much as possible. Rather, I would focus my resouces in setting up something like “appointments availability,” “rescheduling or cancelling your appointments,” “ways to find out your lab results,” “email your doctor,” “fees schedule,” “your current wait time,” new patient registration webforms,” ” itemized cost listings for cash patients,” “your disease management or goals,” “Previsit history for common conditions,” etc. This is particularly useful in small practice groups with high volumes, all done according to the fullest context of patient confidentiality, HIPPA, etc.
Man Nguyen, MD.
Man — thank you much for commenting!
I totally agree that maximally increasing the convenience for patients will be of prime value, especially for busy folks.
The best way I’ve found to make visits short and focused is to have as much data ahead of time, so the physician/provider contact isn’t wasted with staff calling around for results, or specialists’ consult notes, etc. When the visit is to do an exam, then quickly synthesize all the needed data into an action plan, things move quickly.
Patients being able to access scheduling, results, downloadable registration forms, costs, and other related data can go a long way towards keeping medpros doing what they do best, and most efficiently.