Websites For Doctors: Why You Need One
As a doctor, you may not be too worried about having a web presence "advertising" your services. You already have enough patients; they know where your office is, what hospital you are associated with, and what your hours are. However, it is time to catch up with the times and have a website of your own and here are just a few reasons why.
Let Your Patients Get to Know You
Unfortunately, most of your patients know very little about you. They don't know where you went to school, if you are married, or what your thoughts are about medical issues in the news. While this may not seem important to you, it can be to your patients. People have a bit of fear when dealing with doctors. Not only are they afraid you are going to tell them bad news about their condition, but they are also intimidated by you. This can make things difficult when you need them to be open and honest about something that is going on with them. By letting them get to know you better, even if only through a website, they will become more comfortable with you.
Providing Information
People turn to the Internet for medical information. Sometimes they want to know if the situation warrants a trip to the doctor and sometimes they are looking for ways to heal themselves. To keep people from getting the wrong information you need to provide the right information. While your website cannot possibly cover every medical situation, it can cover the ones you see most often. If there is something that many of your patients have questions about, put the information on your website. For example, if your practice involves many patients with diabetes, it could be something such as what blood sugar level requires a trip to the emergency room or a few ways to lower it quickly.
Having a website does not require a lot of time or effort from you. There are a number of companies that specialize in web design for doctors and can create a website for you. Initially, you will need to meet with the designer to provide information about you and your practice. You will also need to tell this person what it is you want from a website. Once the site is designed, you will have to approve it before it goes live on the World Wide Web. After that, a quick meeting each week to approve new content, such as medical advice, and you are done. Your patients will be happier and open up to you more and you won't have to answer the same questions over and over again.