(1) Patient can easily download the following forms through your website:

New Patient’s Information

Financial Policy for New Patients

Self-Assessment (pain issues, current health conditions etc) before coming in to the office for a follow up visit

(2) List all Insurance plans you accept. Listing down all insurances and plans that you accept is very useful to your incoming patients. That way, they would know if you are participating with their insurance. This will save them money (for not going out of network). (3) Feedback from your patient is also very important, by adding a web form with questionnaire is a good tool to evaluate your patient care through patient’s feedback reports.

(4) Posting on your website photos of your practice, the waiting room, state-of-the-art equipments and examining rooms is also a good tool to show your patients. I myself is always curious how the medical office would look like. Is it clean? Is the waiting room conducive? Remember, you wait the longest at the doctor’s office than any other place that you go.

(5) Posting your medical providers’ information and his/her picture is also very vital. His credentials, area of specialty, education, hospital affiliations, professional medical association membership, training information and years of experience are very useful for the patient to learn more about the medical provider or the specialist.

(6) You can also add a page for your practice driving directions and how to get to your location. Your office hours, complete address, your phone number and fax number should all be in the website.

For your patients privacy, DO NOT collect any patient’s information like their complete names, addresses, phone number and social security number using a web form on your website. As I earlier mentioned, if they are a new patient, they can download the form, print it from their home printer, fill it out and bring it to your office on the date of their appointment. Using the feedback web form should only require the patient’s "alias" - nothing else.

Your questions would be:

(1) Who can build my website?

There are many companies big or small that can do the job for you, depending on your allotted budget on your website. Make sure you get the right web designer that is easily to work with and you can trust.

(2) Do I need a server for my website?

If it is just for informational purposes about your medical practice office and that it will not contain so many web pages, then you don’t need a web server sitting in your office. Your website can be hosted by many web hosting companies with minimal monthly fees that ranges between $2.00-$25.00 a month.

Having your own domain is also very essential --- www.your-practice-name.com. Domain names can be purchased and registered under your business. This is normally on a yearly renewal registration. You can also have it registered for up to 5 years.

(3) How Do I get listed on the internet?

I suggest since you are a medical practice, you start listing your website locally. You can list your site "locally" on google and yahoo.

Conclusion: Start using your website address by putting it on your business cards, follow-up appointment cards, brochures, newsletters and all other advertising materials.

All the best in your medical practice business.