Why Doctors Need A Website And What It Should Contain

Whether you are a new doctor to the area or have been in practice in the same place for years, having a website can be very beneficial to you and your practice. It isn't enough to be listed on the different yellow page-type sites anymore. Your patients and potential patients are searching the internet to find the right medical professional and for medical information. Here are just a few benefits to having a proper website and what it should include.

Benefits of a Good Medical Website

When you have a good website, you can cut down on a lot of time the patients have to spend in the waiting room or on the phone with the front desk. People will be able to get your exact address, hours of operation, any down time for lunch, a list of the insurance you accept, and can even download, print and fill out any necessary paperwork before showing up in the office. In addition, they should find valuable medical information they can use to save them a trip to your office or the emergency room or to get them to the proper facility the first time.

What Should Be On Your Website

First and foremost you want to have all your contact information available. This should include what to do if a patient needs to contact you after hours, even if it is just telling them to call the office and speak with an answering service. Many people do not know what to do after hours and end up at a quick care or emergency room when you could have handled the situation with a phone call.

Medical information should be included on the website detailing the most common problems you see in your practice. Let the patients know things like what blood sugar level warrants a trip to the ER and when it can be handled with an office visit or even just waiting at home. Tell mothers when a child needs to be seen for an illness and when keeping them home with over the counter medicines will take care of the problems.

Be sure to have the site updated regularly. Different problems may come up at different times of the year, and you can keep patients informed of any illnesses that seem to be prevalent and what steps to take to keep from getting sick.

Prescription refill requests should also be an option on your website. As the nurse has time, he or she can go through the requests and bring them to you to take care of at a designated time each day. This will save everyone in the office from having to take care of these requests throughout the day as a patient calls.

The more good information you can give your patients, the less time you will have to spend with them for things that should have been handled at home. This will not only give your patients more confidence in you but will allow you and the office staff to take care of the patients who have appointments in a more timely fashion while giving them undivided attention. Luckily, there are services that focus on building websites for doctors so you can have a professional take care of the tech work.

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