Your website is much like the front door to your practice. It’s your first opportunity to leave a good impression on potential patients and connect further with existing patients. Hence it will be essential in growing your medical practice and helping patients live healthy lives.
With this in mind, it can seem like a daunting task to create a website that does all of the above while not keeping you away from your main priority — providing excellent health care.
Whether you’re building a new site or looking to revamp an existing site, here are the five things every medical website should have.
Five Items All Great Medical Websites Have
1. Contact Information and Opening Hours
This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many healthcare practitioners fail to put this on their site, or at least make it difficult to find.
If patients can’t figure out how to contact you, they’ll quickly move on to the next option. You want your number and hours front and center. And sure, a “Contact Us” page is important, but you should also have this information at the heading of your home page.
2. Appointment Booking
Much like the contact info and hours section, if patients can’t figure out how they can easily and quickly make an appointment with you, they probably won’t.
Integrating online bookings into your website could be a huge boost for your practice and an extremely convenient feature for patients.
3. HIPPA Compliance
We know we’re talking about things that every practice’s website should have, but here’s an important area you shouldn’t overlook.
Obviously, any practice in the healthcare realm needs to guarantee that all forms on their website are HIPPA compliant.
So save yourself time, money, and trouble by only using forms online that require the basics: name, address, email, and phone number but absolutely nothing regarding medical conditions or health care. By doing so, you’re keeping your patient’s information safe and adhering to HIPPA guidelines.
4. Patient Resources
Your website is another chance to show your patients why you’re an authority in your field and that they’re in great hands when they come to you.
Patient resources can be educational, like blogs, vlogs, Q&A forums, podcasts, etc. Or it could simply be instructions for an office visit, downloadable forms before an appointment, or a list of accepted insurances. All of these resources will be valuable and appreciated by your patients.
5. Your Specialties
It may feel a little like bragging, but trust us, patients want you to brag!
They need to know exactly what areas and conditions you specialize in to get a good idea of if you can actually help them with their specific needs. In addition to guiding patients, it can also help patients find you in their Google search.
For more website tips, check out this recent blog post.
Building a great website that can connect you to patients, educate patients, and become an extension of existing relationships requires many pieces, but if you want a successful site that will leave users with a good experience, you should incorporate all five of the items we discussed above.
If you need help building your website or connecting with more patients, we’re here to help! Schedule a complementary practice review. The Steeplechase Company can help you grow your practice, reach new patients, and keep the existing ones!