Practice Management Alert

Having a great website can streamline processes and bring in new patients.

In this technology-driven age, patients often have an impression of your practice before they ever set foot in the door. Your website could help market your practice to potential patients, reduce your new patient forms mailing costs, and help current patients stay up to date on your policies and general health information.

Follow these four steps to maximize the success of your practice’s website.

Tip 1: Add Value to Your Site

Your website is the perfect place to store registration forms, privacy notices, Medicare information, and other important forms patients will need.

Point out your forms to new patients so that they can print and fill out the documents prior to their first appointment. Having new patient intake forms with insurance and history information filled out ahead of time makes the registration process and provider first-patient work faster, and it also reduces the cost of mailing all of the forms to the patient.

You can also put information for your established patients on the website. For example, a pediatric practice might post information about recommended over-the-counter medication dosages for children based on age or weight, or post the recommended immunization schedule for children. An orthopedic practice might post recommendations for preventing arthritis or sample muscle strengthening exercises.

This may seem obvious, but a large number of online users complain that websites simply do not meet their needs. This leaves patients frustrated with their experience — and more likely to turn to other places.

Strategy: You must monitor your patients’ unique needs and expectations. Consider a survey that asks what patients want from your website, not just what they think about the services you already provide.

Bottom line: There is a wealth of both practice-specific and general health information that you can put up on your website that will make it a go-to place for patients. Every time a patient goes to your website for information rather than calling in to speak with a nurse to ask a general question, you are helping maximize productivity while also still helping your patients.

Tip 2: Optimize for Keywords

Online search is no longer king, but it’s still important. Fewer online users are turning to search engines to find information, according to a Nielson study. However, hundreds of thousands of people use search engines every day. You can’t afford not to come up in those searches. To increase your chances, make sure you use keywords that your potential patients are likely to use.

For instance, an online user in San Diego who is searching for a new female internist who has experience in women’s health may use the search string “internal medicine San Diego female women’s health.” Your site must use words (internal medicine, internist, female, women’s health, San Diego) that will help search engines bring the user to you.

Tip 3: Tone Down the Unnecessary Flash

Many practices invest their resources in a flash header or entry page, but online users don’t want graphics for the sake of graphics, expert say.

Rather, pour your money and energy into videos and images that highlight why potential clients should spend more time learning about your services — which could translate to a new customer.

Tip 4: Pay Attention to Details

Just creating a pretty site won’t keep future patients on your site. You must test it in different browsers to ensure it looks good from every angle, find and fix any broken links, and constantly update with new information.

Make sure your menu is clean and consistent and that your text is easily read against the site background. Left unchecked, these small issues can balloon into big problems for viewers.