Don’t limit videos to patient education. They can introduce your practice and its philosophy, announce the opening of a satellite office, or allow satisfied patients to tell their stories. Milford (Mass.) Regional Medical Center (www.milfordregional.org), for example, began posting videos of patient testimonials on its Web site in 2008. They were a big reason why Web site traffic rose 65 percent that year, says John Owen, whose design firm, Clearpoint Communications, created the portal.
Whatever videos you post, consider uploading them to YouTube as well. Patients who come across your mini-movie there may take the next step and visit your Web site or your actual office. Or, you can first upload a video to YouTube and then post a link to it on your Web site, as Copperman does. However, you run the risk that patients who follow the link will stay at YouTube and begin playing, say, music videos.
Two years ago, a physician Web site and connectivity company called Medem addressed the problem of Internet wandering by making it possible for its physician clients to embed YouTube videos on their practice sites. That way, patients watching the videos stay put on the physician’s Web turf. Medem’s e-communication business was acquired earlier this year by a rival named Medfusion, which says it will continue to embed YouTube videos on its physician Web sites if clients request it.
Designing the Successful Web Site In the quest for practical practice Web sites, form often takes a backseat to function. Good design, however, amounts to more than window dressing. It’s more like salad dressing, making the site more consumable.
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Overlooking these communication tools?
Physician-patient communication is a standard fixture for physician Web sites, whether it’s done through a connectivity service such as Medfusion and RelayHealth, or the patient portal of an EHR program. By giving patients the ability to view a lab result, request a prescription renewal, pay a bill, or ask a medical question, physicians and staff spend less time talking on the telephone and shuffling paper.
Now it’s a just a matter of exploiting the full range of communication tools available. One you might have overlooked is the ability to conduct patient-satisfaction surveys online. With the right questions, you can perform a head-to-toe physical of your practice. Are phone calls answered promptly? Are waiting times in the reception area too long? Is the front desk staff friendly, or rude? Is the parking adequate?
The simplest way to incorporate such a survey in your site is posting it as a PDF file that patients can print out, complete, and bring to the office. For less muss and fuss, ask the company that created your Web site to build in an online questionnaire that can be electronically transmitted. Or post a link to an online survey company such as PollDaddy (www.polldaddy.com) or SurveyMonkey.com, which can query patients for you. Both companies offer free surveys, but limit the number of responses you can collect gratis to 100 per month. However, for $200 a year, you can survey up to 1,000 people per month with PollDaddy and an unlimited number with SurveyMonkey.com.
Think beyond the physician-patient relationship — your Web site can also streamline communication with other physicians, especially if you’re a specialist who depends on referrals. Both RelayHealth and Medfusion offer referral-management tools that replace the phone calls, faxes, and paper traditionally used in patient hand-offs.
Huron Gastro (www.hurongastro.com), a 15-doctor gastroenterology group in Ypsilanti, Mich., is beginning to reap efficiencies from a referral-management portal that it introduced on its Web site from Medfusion. After logging in, referring physicians complete a form detailing the reasons for the referral. If they wish, they can upload supporting documentation. The same portal allows Huron Gastro physicians to ask referring physicians for additional information and keep them apprised of the patient’s status.
