Medical practice is a complex art. Aside from the fundamentalgoal of caring for patients’ myriad needs, running a medicalpractice is also a business.
Doctors and other health practitioners routinely rely on consultantsand business managers who specialize in the medical field to handlecomplex issues of insurance, compliance, records management, officemanagement and other day–to–day functions.
Ostensibly, the goal is to streamline business operations and focuson individualized care. Why, then, do health care practitioners optfor run–of–the–mill, generic design and functionality when it comes totheir Web sites?
From both marketing and patient service perspectives, a distinctiveWeb site should be a priority for any medical practice. The Internetis the first place new patients start looking for a doctor, and many ofthem will look for signs of distinction. The biggest complaint aboutthe healthcare industry is just that – it’s become an industry, wherepatients feel increasingly depersonalized.
Bridging the gap between personalized patient care and running asuccessful business can be tricky. One way is to have a useful, appealingWeb site customized specifically to your practice, your patients’needs, and what sets you apart from the other names in the medicaldirectory or the insurance company’s list.
Web site templates are readily available on both the Internet andretail shelves, many of them geared specifically toward medical offices.Promising professional design, quick and easy set–up, and rock–bottompricing, they can seem like an obvious and simple solution to abusy practice’s online needs.
For many health care professionals, word of mouth, referrals, andother means of “advertising” provides all the “customers” they canhandle, and the Web site is more of a reference tool. Many of theavailable templates are well designed and may offer all your practicerequires. On the other hand, templates can be merely a palliativetreatment.
Let’s run some lab work: do a quick search on the Internet for localdoctors. What you’ll find mostly are indifferent directories, generic“report cards” and undifferentiated map listings. You’ll probably find afew Web sites, some of them amateurish and unappealing, others witha little more glitz.
Ultimately, most are standardized and impersonal, with nondescript,cookie–cutter formats and stock photos you’ve seen on otherbrochures, ads, billboards and commercials. If you were a patientlooking for the right choice of medical professionals, what good wouldany of this do you?
Templates claim to save time and money, and sometimes they do.They are pre–built and inexpensive. All you have to do is download thefiles, insert your text and photos, upload it to your server, et voila! Youhave a “professionally” designed Web site at your service.
Bear in mind, though, the designers may be unknown freelancerswith no credentials, experience or verifiable portfolio, who have soldtheir design to an indifferent online reseller. Templates are standard,one–size–fits–all solutions that may not offer much quality control.
The hidden cost of templates ranges from stilted aesthetics to frustrationand additional cash outlays. To get your logo and address onthe site you’ll have to have to have an html editing program of somesort. Functionality is generally limited, may not work across multiplebrowsers and offers limited features. You’ll still need to arrange forWeb hosting, domain name registration, updates, maintenance and allthe other things a good Web design firm can package for you.
Availability is one of the key features of a Web template, which haspros and cons. Templates are available to pretty much anyone whofinds them. Back to the lab: search for “medical Web templates” on theInternet, and you’ll see the same top–20 designs over and over again.
You’ll also recognize some of the imagery from your colleagues’Web sites and ad campaigns. There are generally two prices, onewhich is inexpensive that allows you (and anyone else who purchasesit) to use it for a single Web site.
Another “unique” and much higher price tag (generally in the$1,500–$3,000 range) gives you “exclusive” rights to the site design,meaning that the vendor will take it off the site and no one else canbuy that design after you.
Bridging the gap between personalizedpatient care and running asuccessful business can be tricky.
What it doesn’t buy is the rights to all the other Web sites thatbought the design before you, or the same design on a different site.Remember all those other vendor sites with the top–20 designs overand over again? They’re still out there.
That “unique” price is aptly, though ironically named. It’s generallyin the same ballpark as a fully customized, professionally designedand developed site by an actual Web designer, who can talk to you andfind out who you are, who your patients are and what specific featurescould be useful on your Web site.
Keep in mind, too, that templates are readily available to Web designersfor resale. This isn’t necessarily a problem, provided the workis priced and acknowledged accordingly. This can be a good middleground: you purchase the inexpensive groundwork, along with professional“add–on” services to customize the site to your needs.
However, some Web companies will try to pass off a template asoriginal, even sitting on the project for a week or two for added effect,charging full price for design and development. It pays to recognizethe templates. It also pays to recognize that the average staff IT specialist,if your office is lucky enough to have one, is not a designer andmay have no interest, knowledge or experience with putting togethera Web site.
Investing in a Web site should provide an invaluable marketing andpatient care tool, when used to full potential. Hiring a trusted Webfirm gives you access to truly professional, engaging graphic designand a range of features to facilitate better care and useful informationfor your patients: from your own publications and blogs to researchand healthcare news, access to forms, articles of general interest ormore personal touches that reinforce the relationship between youand your clients.
A good template may be a viable option, provided you understandthe potential pitfalls, do the appropriate research and make yourselection accordingly. On the other hand, if you want to distinguishyourself and impress upon your patients the level of your commitmentto their care, a customized site may be just what the doctor ordered.
