Communication: If You Build It …
How a top-notch Web site can help expand and enhance your services
By Elaine Zablocki One of Christopher Crow’s patients was in Miami, about to leave on a week-long cruise, when his prostatitis flared up again. “He e-mailed me from his hotel room to ask for a prescription,” recalls Crow, whose Web site features secure e-mail messaging. “All he had to do was locate the closest drug store and pick up his medicine the next day. Imagine how difficult it would have been for him, trying to get an appointment with a doctor in a strange city before his ship sailed.”
Crow practices at Family Medical Specialists of Texas (FMST) in Plano, a Dallas suburb. Crow says that the three-physician practice’s Web site, www.fmstexas.com, attracts new patients and helps make the practice far more efficient.
The same goes for the Office of Orthopaedic Medicine and Surgery, a three-physician practice in Washington, D.C. As patients leave after an appointment, they are handed cards with the practice’s Web address (www.dcorthodocs.com) printed on the front and their diagnosis written on the back. “We’ve just upgraded our Web site,” explains Latisha Harrison, the practice’s marketing director. “Now it’s more interactive, and patients can submit forms to us online. We also added an educational guide so now our patients can look up reliable information about their specific condition. Our doctors were really, really adamant about including that feature in the upgrade.”
These physicians are among the early adopters of Web-based technologies for medical practices, although many more are likely to follow their example. In today’s wired world, patients want the same level of service online from their physicians that they already routinely receive from companies selling them books, music, and camping gear.
“Absolutely everyone should have a practice Web site,” says practice management consultant Judy Capko. “It’s a very reasonable investment, and it makes you more visible, not only to your existing patients, but also to people who are searching for a new physician in the area.” Continued...
