Bill Moshofsky, a PHMG family physician, particularly appreciates his practice’s secure e-mail service. “Whenever I have two minutes between patients, I can just sit down and send off a couple of responses, and I couldn’t place a phone call in such a short time,” he says. “One of the things that’s kind of nice about e-mail is, you just send out the information and you’re done.”

PHMG also hosts a site for the general public. Potential patients can search its Healthwise database for information about their specific symptoms. Visitors can also use the site’s “ask-an-expert” function to send in their healthcare-related questions and view previously posted responses. PHMG has found this community service to be an effective way to attract new patients.

Within the next year, PHMG is expanding its Web site to enable it to send personalized reminders to patients, telling them when it’s time to schedule a physical exam, a mammogram, or similar preventive services. The group is also planning to send personalized electronic newsletters to targeted patients with an interest in specific conditions; these newsletters will be available to nonpatient community members as well as established patients.

In the future, PHMG hopes to link data from their patients’ home monitoring systems directly into their electronic medical records, so that staff can keep a close eye on variables such as blood pressure and glucose levels for the chronically ill. The practice is also considering giving patients Web access to their personal health records. “For example, if a patient wanted to report that they’re cutting pills in half, or taking them every other day, this would give them an avenue for those comments,” says Chuck Broch, PeaceHealth’s systems analyst.

Part of the reason PHMG can do all this is because it participates in a three-state healthcare IT collaboration. But smaller practices can also develop Web sites with similar advanced features using sophisticated software and Web designers who specialize in physician practices.

For example, one physician at FMST with a special interest in information technology supervises the practice’s Web site, while the others chime in with suggestions and comments on future directions. The practice uses software to link its EMR to its secure e-mail service, so physicians can respond to patient e-mail requests quickly and safely.

The Office of Orthopaedic Medicine and Surgery called on iHealthSpot to create its new Web site. That company grew out of a partnership between a patient with a broken leg and a surgeon with an interest in Web technology. Today, iHealthSpot specializes in Web site design for small physician practices, also offering secure e-mail hosting, patient education materials, search engine optimization, and nightly backups. Its most complete package will set you back roughly $3,000.

Clearly, patients value being able to easily access their physicians and take care of personal healthcare tasks via the Internet. Physicians also enjoy the enhanced efficiency highly developed practice Web sites can bring. But it’s difficult to quantify exactly how much time a well-run, multifunctional Web site can save the average practice. Simply posting your address, map, and directions on your site must save phone time for front-office staff — but exactly how much time?

FMST can give you an idea: Named Practice of the Year in 2006 by Physicians Practice, this group is on the technological cutting edge, with a seamlessly integrated EMR and secure e-mail messaging. “The national average for staff in a primary-care practice is just under five employees per physician,” says Crow. “We need less than 2.5 employees per physician.”

You can do the math.

When Crow arrives at work in the morning, lab results from yesterday’s patients are in their respective electronic charts. “I review them and then click a few times to e-mail those patients that their results are waiting on our Web site. The work flow takes seconds,” he says. “Compared to the old system with paper charts and lab reports, where you handed the chart to a nurse who sent the information to the patient … you are probably saving $5 or $6 each time you send out lab results.”

Elaine Zablocki is a writer who has focused on healthcare issues for more than 20 years. She is the editor of Great Boards newsletter and Physician Office Laboratory News, and she contributes to many other healthcare publications. She can be reached via editor@physicianspractice.com.

This article originally appeared in the May 2007 issue of Physicians Practice.