Doctors and the Web

Putting your practice online is easier than ever

Cheaper, too—you can download everything you need for free. But if you build a Web site, will patients come?

By Robert Lowes
MIDWEST EDITOR

Cardiologist Kim T. Swanson of Newport Beach, CA, built a Web site for his practice in 1998. It took him 30 minutes. And Swanson didn't have to master arcane computer programming or spend a penny.

For his scant investment of time, Swanson has a Web site as sophisticated as they come. A visiting patient can read about his heart murmur, request a prescription refill, or ask Swanson for advice. Best of all, the doctor doesn't worry about the wrong eyes seeing their online communication, thanks to high-level encryption.

Swanson's experience illustrates how easy it can be to give your practice an address on the World Wide Web. A multitude of organizations will help you erect a site at little or no cost. Some—including Salu.net, the company Swanson used, and WebMD—offer Web sites as part of a package of services such as online purchasing and electronic claims. So you can kill several birds with one cyberstone.

And vendors have dumbed down the design process with so-called wizards. Maybe you've already used one to create a letterhead or greeting card. Choose a design template and graphics from a menu of offerings, type in your name and information about your practice, type in an e-mail address as well as links to Web sites you'd like to direct patients to, and select some canned patient education material for display. Hit a button, and presto—you're on the Web.

You have a lot of good reasons to build a virtual office on the Internet. It may attract new patients, and it can certainly help better educate the ones you have. The two-way communication possible with a Web site promises to make life easier for you and your office staff.

However, be aware that while more and more Americans go online for health information, they may not necessarily flock to your site. Swanson receives only five online messages a week from patients seeking advice. "I'm surprised that e-mail contact between doctors and patients has not taken off yet," he says.

And much of the talk about how electronic connectivity can make your office more efficient is just that—talk. Whenever one of Swanson's patients submits an appointment request online, the information must be re-entered into the doctor's practice management system. In an ideal world, the data would automatically flow into that program.

Another cold reality has nothing to do with technology. Somebody in the practice needs to maintain the Web site and respond to e-mail. Just tell that to a doctor whose staff already feels overworked.