Website for doctors: How patients choose their doctor

 

Often, choosing a practitioner begins well before going to the office by consulting the doctor's website: the Internet user will use these pages to decide whether or not to choose a doctor. Thus, the medical practice website must be professional, modern, reliable, and user-friendly to ensure a first quality contact.

The first real contact with the doctor's practice occurs even earlier, during a simple search on Google, on specialized doctor search sites, or by following the recommendations and evaluations on other websites. Each of these points must be considered if you want to embark on creating your medical website.

Summary

1. Why create a website for my medical practice?
2. The medical office's website, a beacon during the coronavirus crisis
3. Create a doctor's website: which service provider? What system?
4. What are the essential contents of a doctor's website?
5. Create a website for a medical practice step by step

Why create a website for my medical practice?

Even today, far from all doctors have their websites. The reasons are multiple: the supposedly high costs, the significant additional workload, or the legal considerations are all fears that dissuade doctors from creating their sites.

In principle, the legal provisions (e.g., compliance with the regulations of the Public Health Code regarding the advertising of medicinal products) are not so difficult to comply with on a doctor's website. Costs and workload are not insurmountable obstacles either, especially because of the many advantages that a healthcare website design offers.

advice

Good search engine optimization through natural referencing is essential to integrating Google Maps.

Advantage: a website lightens the practice's workload

A website can lighten the overall workload of medical practice. Essential information, such as consultation hours, home visits, or times for emergency consultations, can be displayed directly. Suppose this information is visible on your site. In that case, the secretarial team will be more available because potential patients will be able to find out for themselves instead of calling the office.

Advantage: make an appointment directly on the website of your doctor

It is possible to make an appointment simply and directly online, for example, via an external provider or a simple system integrated into the website of the doctor's practice. Very practical for patients, electronic appointment scheduling also facilitates the work of reception, who otherwise must devote most of their working time to coordinating appointments.

Advantage: making life easier for patients

The most modern doctor's websites even provide real-time information on waiting times. In addition, there are tools to renew a prescription or view test results online. The significant administrative management that results from this is compensated by significant long-term advantages, both for the patients and the practice team.

Advantage: present the firm and the team on the website

The personal relationship between doctor and patient is fundamental. To promote the relationship of trust online, it is recommended to publish a photo of the team on the firm's website. Complete this page with information about the doctor's course.

Advantage: present all the services

A patient does not choose to consult a particular doctor only for occasional pain but also for his specific services, such as innovative treatment methods or health services that are not covered by health insurance, such as osteopathy or cosmetic procedures. A doctor's website may include a comprehensive list of services offered.

Advantage: all roads lead to your practice

When you need medical advice, you particularly appreciate finding the contact details of a doctor immediately: telephone or fax number, email address, and office address. It may also be good to offer potential patients an itinerary that includes information on the nearest public transport stops and parking options. Some accessibility information will also be very helpful to some patients.

Advantage: taking care of the firm's image

A clean, modern, and welcoming practice gives the patient the feeling of being in good hands. The same applies to the website of medical practice. The titles and affiliations of the practitioner, in particular to medical societies, must be mentioned and testify to his seriousness and skills. The regular publication of specialized articles is also a pledge of seriousness.

The medical office's website, a beacon during the coronavirus crisis

The coronavirus crisis has profoundly changed our private and professional lives with social distancing measures, work bans, partial unemployment, and many other factors. In principle, the situation has not deteriorated for medical practices because the crisis we are going through implies a much higher attendance than usual for many of them. However, in terms of managing appointments and workload, the coronavirus for doctors and medical staff is a colossal challenge that is difficult to master mentally and physically. In this context, a good website can be a remarkable ally for your firm and facilitate the daily life of the entire team on several levels.

Note

During the coronavirus crisis, medical practices are not affected by the mandatory closure measures. However, it is advisable to observe, as far as possible, social distancing measures and the wearing of masks inside the practice, basic measures to best protect the health of medical staff and patients.

First of all, a doctor's office website is the ideal platform to display up-to-date information on the coronavirus and the necessary measures put in place. If you have adapted your opening hours during the pandemic, you can let them know through your site. If, until now, you haven't opted for this solution, now is the perfect time to adopt an online patient appointment management system. A golden rule: the more automated the chosen tool, the more your team will see its workload lightened. Finally, if you have your website, you always have the option of offering online consultation hours.

Create a doctor's website: which service provider? What system?

You have four options for creating a website for your medical practice:

• A website editor
• A content management system (CMS)
• Do-it-yourself programming
• A website design service

The website editor

With this option, you don't need a developer or advanced knowledge of HTML, CSS, or JavaScript. Instead, a good editor will allow you to create a doctor's website very easily, based on modules to be moved.

The doctor can choose the design of his website from several themes, adapt the pages and add his content. Of course, this solution does not offer advanced customization, but it is generally not essential in the case of a medical office website.

Most offers also include Hosting, domain name registration, and the creation of an associated email address. Another handy feature is the basic or paid-for integration of search engine optimization or other tools to market your website.

advice

The principle of website editors is the same regardless of the supplier chosen. However, you are interested in comparing service providers to find the best offer. 

Content Management System (CMS)

A content management system, or Content Management System (CMS ), also offers ready-to-use themes – with more possibilities in terms of customization. Most of the functionality is added using extensions or plugins, which requires no or very little programming skills.

Program yourself

The cheapest and most ambitious option requires the most computer knowledge. By creating and programming a site for your practice yourself, you have total control over the layout of the pages. You will also have to manage the hosting, domain, and SSL certificate yourself.

Website design service

To program or have programmed? Hiring a company or a freelancer to create a website for your medical practice is the simplest and most expensive option. Consider this option only if you have very high requirements for your site that justify additional investment.

Advice.

Comparison of the different options

Generally, a website editor or a content management system is enough to create a doctor's website. However, if you have the time and programming skills, you can do it yourself. Conversely, if you are short on time but have a substantial budget, you can commission a website design service.

Website editor Quick and easy to set up, package including hosting, domain name, and SSL certificate, no programming knowledge required Very few customization options, almost no technical control. Easy to medium Average

Content management system Very often Open Source, requires little knowledge of HTML or CSS, limited customization Hosting, domain name, an SSL certificate must be purchased in parallel, customization is limited Medium to difficult Low to Medium

programming by yourself, No design costs, completely free customization, control over all aspects. Hosting, domain name, and an SSL certificate must be purchased. Additionally, extensive programming experience required Difficult Low

Website design service Quick setup usually includes hosting, domain name and SSL certificate, collaboration with experts, and full customization. Relatively expensive, subsequent modifications possible, but limited and very expensive Easy Raised

What are the essential contents of a doctor's website?

Creating a doctor's office website is quick and easy when you have thought about the most important points beforehand. The first step in planning is to create the pages' essential content. The topics listed below are essential. If you have any doubts about certain points not covered here, contact the National Council of the Order of Physicians, who can help you.

• Home page
• Opening time
• News
• Appointment booking and more
• Contact information
• Benefits
• Team presentation
• Legal Notice
• Privacy Policy

Home page

First impressions count: the Internet is no exception to this rule. Regardless of industry and purpose, all websites should display everything the internet user needs immediately on their homepage. In the case of a doctor's site, it is essentially the opening hours, the telephone number, and the services offered.

Other contact information, instructions for accessing the practice, or news should be accessible as quickly as possible via the main menu. In short: if you want to create a website for a medical practice, think carefully about how to build your homepage. Ideally, this should provide an overview of all the content on your site.

Opening time

It is often to know your opening hours that a patient will consult your website. It is, therefore, necessary to make them appear directly on the home page, but you can also devote a section to them and indicate them again next to your contact details. In addition, some doctor websites opt to put their opening hours in the footer to appear at the bottom of every page on the site.

Please note: highlighting your opening hours is useless if they are never up to date. Therefore, with each modification, unforeseen event, or shift in your opening hours, update this information as soon as possible on your medical practice website.

News

In terms of content, the "News" section can include significantly more topics than new schedules or a change in the team. Medical research continually leads to discoveries. In addition, doctors are constantly training to participate in training, congresses, or seminars. You can discuss these topics in the "News" category. A summary is sufficient because your website aims primarily at your patient base and not your colleagues interested in specialized articles. The patient just needs confirmation that your practice keeps abreast of advances in medicine.

Appointment booking and more

When creating a doctor's website, there is no need to dwell too much on interactive features. Instead, we can ignore user-centered design and favor the human-centered- design approach, which, in the best case, must essentially take charge of one task: making appointments.

Integrating an online appointment booking function on a medical practice website is very easy. There are already ready-to-use systems that you can integrate directly into your website without special knowledge. However, the tools vary regarding the price and the functionalities: some offer a simple function of making an appointment. In contrast, others are real, complete solutions that send an automatic reminder to the patient and even allow the management of the results of analyses and online prescriptions.

Contact

A modern firm must offer different means of contact on its website: telephone number, email, and contact form to help sort requests by theme. The fax number is still important today, for example, when the health insurance has to exchange information with the practice.

This information is self-evident for a firm. The same applies to clear directions for accessing the practice. Integrating a Google Maps map indicating its exact address is child's play. Internet users simply have to click on it to directly obtain the route to get to your practice from where they are.

Benefits

A doctor's website should contain much more information than his business card because patients like to find out in advance about the services offered by a practice. So be sure to detail, for care, your fees, the part covered by health insurance, and the rest payable by the insured (which can be reimbursed in whole or in part by complementary health insurance).

Team presentation

Trust is the cement of the relationship between patient and doctor. In the "Team" section, introduce all of the firm's staff. As so often, an image is worth much more than a long speech. Your photos must be clear and warm, conveying an impression of professionalism.

Legal Notice

You should never forget to write GDPR -compliant legal notices, even for a doctor's website. If the legal notices do not appear or are not correctly written, the bill can be salty. Law firms have even specialized in identifying and calling to order concerning breaches of the duty to communicate legal notices.

Privacy Policy

The privacy policy is also mandatory for a website when it collects personal data. It, therefore, concerns all medical practice sites that use a contact form on their pages or an online analysis tool to evaluate the number of visits.

Note

In USA, the creation of websites for medical practices is governed by a publication of the National Council of the Order of Physicians, the ethical compliance charter applicable to professional websites for doctors. Without, however, being mandatory, the charter serves as a guide for practitioners wishing to make their activity visible online while respecting the code of ethics and the legal obligations of the profession. Therefore, it is recommended that interested doctors contact the departmental council of the CNOM to which they depend on this subject.

What rules apply to the website of medical practice?

The Law for Confidence in the Digital Economy (LCEN) requires any person publishing an online communication service to the public to include legal notices. Therefore, in addition to the usual information such as name, address, and email address, doctors must communicate information specific to their profession (in case of doubt, please consult the sites of Service-Public.fr and legifrance.gouv.fr on this subject) :

• Indication of the professional title;
• Name of the state of the European Union in which the professional title was granted;
• RPPS number allowing the practitioner to be identified in the CNOM public directory;
• Name of the order with which the professional is registered;
• Membership in an approved management association (AGA);
• The conditions for producing estimates when the regulations for the discipline are exercised so require;
• The situation under the Convention;
• Territorial procedures for responding to emergencies and continuity of care.

It is very important to use the correct names for all your information. For example, a doctor's office is not necessarily a clinic. Therefore, pay particular attention to the names used.

What information is prohibited on a doctor's website?

The descriptions of the services must inform the patient objectively. Their wording must not mislead, adopt an advertising character, or promise results. In addition, physicians must comply with other obligations:

• The Public Health Code prohibits physicians from any form of advertising;
• To exercise his right to freely choose his attending physician, the patient must have sufficient information, provided that it does not boast or compare the practitioner's skills with his colleagues;
• The links appearing on the site must not have any interest of a commercial nature.
• The publication of claims relating to the effect that is not medically proven is prohibited.
• Any recommendation or rating is also prohibited on a doctor's site.

In USA, tools such as a customer review system or a guest book relating to patient experiences to evaluate the practice are strictly prohibited.

Note

If you wish to animate pages on social networks such as Facebook or Instagram in parallel with your website, the same rules apply.

Create a website for a medical practice step by step

Whichever option you choose, use the guidance in our guide to help you create a website for your business.

Step 1: Choose your domain.

Finding the right domain depends on the search habits of interested parties and the relevance of the domain name to rank in search results.

A doctor's website should reflect his business directly in his domain name and, ideally, his place of business. For example, the name "www.dentiste-dijon.fr" meets the criteria of a good domain name but will certainly already be taken. The "Domain Check" quickly checks for you whether a domain has already been assigned:

Domain Check

To Research

• .us
• .com
• .info
• .net

Step 2: define the design of your firm's website.

Your specialty will determine the appearance of your doctor's office website. Regardless of their specialization, all doctors should opt for a clear design. The home page should also reflect your firm's identity. Make your firm's colors and logo appear on your site.

advice

Website editors and CMS generally work with predefined themes, commonly called "Templates." 

Step 3: Populate the website

Here is the step that we have already covered in the chapter "What are the essential contents for a doctor's website?": complete the home page and the different pages with your content.

Step 4: Publish your website.

Before publishing your site, remember to contact the CNOM departmental council you depend on to ensure that it complies with the code of ethics and legal obligations. Then, put it online and be sure to inform your patients. If your new site offers new services, it is good to personally inform your patients at the office reception. You can also have your URL referenced on other profiles or specialized medical sites.

advice

Easily check the reach of a medical practice's website with List Local.

Most patients search for a practice nearby on their smartphones. Search engines like Google automatically associate the patient's location with search results. You don't normally need full search engine optimization; in most cases, a short informative text will suffice to appear in the search results.