Are you a medical professional who owns a medical practice? It’s a noble calling to care for the sick. It takes skill, dedication, and literally years of training to get to the point where you can own a practice and provide frontline healthcare services.
A practice is a business like any other, and that means that it should have a high-quality, functioning website. Getting your website right is incredibly important, but it can be difficult if you don’t have the skills to do it yourself. In this situation, it might be best to look into website support services to help keep you up and running — your patients will thank you for it. In this article, we’ll cover the six things a medical practice website should cover so you’re across all facets of it. Continue reading to learn more.
1. Display Location, Contact Details, and Business Hours
This might seem like a no-brainer, but it is incredibly important that your medical practice website displays your practice location, operational hours, and contact details like a phone number and email. While existing patients might know how to get there, when you are open, and other crucial information, new patients won’t.
This section should be easy to find and should prominently display your practice’s address, contact number, email, and hours of operation. This way, new patients can find your clinic, call to enquire, and know when they can book an appointment. The link to these details should be included in the top or side menu bar so it’s easy to navigate for website users.
As a free bonus tip, consider creating a Google business listing that lists all of these details and allows patients to navigate to your location using their native GPS application, such as Google Maps or Waze.
2. Booking System
Your medical practice website should have an online booking system. This is a digital platform that integrates with your website and allows patients to view each doctor’s schedule and book appointments with the doctor of their choice, provided you have multiple doctors working at the clinic. This system will display a calendar, with available time slots showing on each day. The patient can then click through to book an appointment.
Booking systems will typically integrate directly with your appointment management software so your practice administration staff knows exactly what’s happening each day. The same system should allow patients to cancel appointments and confirm if they are attending via automated text messaging. This user-friendly and nifty platform should be a vital part of any medical practice website functionality.
3. List of Services You Provide
Another feature your medical practice website should cover is a list of services offered at your clinic. This way, potential new patients can browse your website and ensure that the medical services they are seeking are offered at your practice. For instance, you might only offer general practice medicine, so if people are looking for a specialist service, they know to look elsewhere.
If you do indeed offer specialised services or have a specialist come in one day a week, such as a gastroenterologist or a psychiatrist, it’s important to clearly list this information on the service page. Also, if your clinic offers medical imaging such as X-ray, blood testing, or skin examinations, you should ensure that these services are listed. Again, this section of the website should be easy to find and navigate, and the menu side or top bar is the perfect place to put these.
4. Staff Directory
When it comes to other things that a medical practice website should cover, a directory listing of all your practitioners and staff is extremely helpful, particularly if you work alongside several doctors, nurses, and admin staff at the clinic. Your website’s staff directory needs to list the names, experience, and qualifications of each medical provider. You can also opt to include a professional photograph, detailed biography including their specialisations, office hours, and relevant contact information in case people have queries.
Suppose that your clinic is a single-person practice, with you as the only medical professional working there. If so, you should include a page that covers everything potential patients need to know about your training, expertise, and specialisations. This is because the provider-patient relationship is personal, and new and existing patients want to rest assured that their caregivers are compassionate, friendly, and have the relevant experience and qualifications. Try to convey this in your website messaging to create a sense of trust and care, even before your patients walk through the doors of your practice.
5. Billing and Fees Section
A medical practice website needs to have a section that outlines the various fees and billing systems that the practice utilises. You should have a list of fees outlined for various consultations, from standard quick consultations to extended appointments, tests, letters, forms, and all the other things that a patient might need when they come to see the doctor. This way, people have an idea of the costs associated with visiting your clinic.
Transparency is key here, so people aren’t surprised by hidden costs or fees after they’ve seen the doctor. Furthermore, if they are entitled to any government rebates that can help reduce the cost of their medical bill, you should include this, along with details of how people can claim the rebate to get some money back on their doctor’s bill.
6. Consider a Blog Section
This final tip is optional but well worth considering. Part of a viable content marketing strategy for businesses is to establish themselves as an authority in their field. One way to do this is to publish blog posts on medical topics. You could cover topics such as how to manage a cold or flu, how to prepare for a blood test, or other informative blogs that provide value to the reader.
A good blog section will also help your search engine optimisation ranking, so when people search for a medical practice near them, yours pops up. You can even delve into creating backlinks which will help you rank higher on search engine results pages, but that’s a more detailed topic for another day.
Creating a Website That Covers It All
This helpful article has covered six things a medical practice website should include, including bookings, fees, staff directories, and more. If your practice website covers these, you’re set up for success!
