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Practice Management Update
With Little Effort, Web Sites Can Educate, Attract Patients
Travel to the Web site of a pain specialist in Florida and feel better
instantly. Orange
and gold tones of a sunset
blanket a photograph of a beach scene,
complete with palm
trees bracketed by quiet surf and smooth sand. A click
of a mouse adds
the sounds
of the ocean and seagulls to complete the mood.
But this site isn't just pretty; it's informative, too. Visitors can
learn about procedures
used to relive pain, various types
of pain, and the background of the
doctor herself, Lynne Columbus, D.O., a solo practitioner in Palm Harbor, Fla.
Columbus is so
convinced of the value of a Web presence that she has two sites, in
fact. One she
set up own:
www.gulfcoastpain.com
and another she maintains through Medem, Inc.,
a secure communicates network firm
at
www.gulfcoastpain.yourmd.com.
"I've had the original Web site for three years now, and it is linked to
my Medem Web site,"
says Columbus who
adds, "I've gotten so much use from them."
The daughter of a surgeon, Columbus recalls from her childhood
the rapport and respect
her father had from his
community. She sees an Internet presence as a
way to reestablish
that personal connection.
"Because of managed care organizations, the time we are allotted to talk
to patients is really
shortened to the point
where patients really hunger for more information
about what is going
on with them and about the procedures they
may be undergoing,"
Columbus says, "I think
this is closing a gap that exists now between patients and their
physicians."
Take a Plunge or Just a Dip
Physicians can enter the Internet Age with just their toes, or get
in up to their heads.
Among the firms that offer Web
site hosting, Medem, which Columbus
uses, makes
having a home page easy: the firm has a basic template for pages
and does not charge
any fees, in most cases.
"With our Web site you can get the whole thing up and running in 20
minutes,"
says Edward Fotsch, MD, Medem's
chief executive officer. "If you are
capable of ordering
a book from Amazon, you can build a Web Site."
About 83,000 physicians have a site through Medem, Fotsch says. He
estimates that
number will grow to 200,000,
out of an estimated 770,000 physicians in
the United States.
Medem was founded in 1999 by seven medical societies, including the
American Medical
Association, the American
Academy of Pediatrics, and the American
Academy of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Web Sites can help physicians accomplish the three things vital
to staying in practice:
see patients, make money, and not get sued.
In addition to its basic Web Site services, since May the
company has offered physicians
the technology to securely
communicate with patients and others and to
charge for such
virtual visits. About 8,000 physicians, including
Columbus, have
registered to use this
service.
And there are other such firms, including Healinx, Inc., that offer
secure
communications
(see story in the May issue, page 1).
Physicians with little Internet experience may be most comfortable with
a Web site that
is static and serves mostly to
inform; these typically don't have
interactive features such
as allowing prescription refills, appointments, or online
consultations.
About 90 percent
of Medem's physicians have such sites.
As Fotsch puts it, Web sites can help physicians accomplish the three
things that are
vital to staying in practice: "See
patients, make money, and not get
sued." This is
especially true if the interactive options are utilized, but this is not
mandatory, of course.
Online consults are seen as a method to generate income while staying
out of legal trouble.
Malpractice carries are
increasingly supporting the use of the Web and
secure
communications as a way of reducing physician exposure by
improving care
and
documenting interventions in a way that can't be done with phone calls.
"You can have a Web site without secure messaging," Fotsch notes.
"Physicians ca build
their own Web sites. At a
high level they build them to get access to
new patients and to
provide information to existing patients."
What Medem Offers
Medem Web pages contain certain standard information, beginning with
the physician's
name and a unique "care
philosophy." In Columbus' case, it stresses that
she uses "the
very latest in pain management technologies."
Next is the office address with links to maps, a listing of specialties
and accepted
insurance plans, and then a heading
called :Patient Education
Resources," which has
items from various medical associations and governmental agencies,
such
as the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that are relevant to
patients.
Along the right side of the page are customized messages that can be
altered; they may
reflect seasonal problems a
practice is seeing, or announce new office
hours or associate
who may have joined a practice, for example.
Having a Medem Web site may help attract patients in several ways. All
physicians are
listed in the AMA's Physician
Finder database; those with a Medem Web
site will have
a direct link to their homepage in the association's online
directory.
In addition, Fotsch has forged agreements with health plans to include
links to physicians'
Web addresses in their online
provider directories. This allow
prospective patients to visit
a site before they select a physicians, and an attr4active
Web site that
offers convenient
features like online scheduling of refills just might win them over.
Site Draws Patients
Columbus hired a private firm to help develop her personal Web site.
She wrote most
of the text that appears and
chose the graphics.
Columbus estimates she spends about $1500 a year to maintain the site,
which includes
paying for the domain name
and to be included in search engines.
In return, the internet brings her two to three new patients a week.
Increasing her practice
is important for a clinician
like Columbus who counts on referrals. She
also uses the sites
to introduce herself to referring physicians.
Because many of her patients are on long-term pain therapies, her
personal Web site
includes information about what
side effects can be expected. There are
separate sections
for new patients and existing patients.
Columbus has found she can easily communicate with her elderly patients'
family members,
who may be living far
from their snow bird parents, and with patients
who may be traveling.
"It is the best thing any doctor could have done, and should do."
Columbus has also conducted a half-dozen online consultations, for which
she has been
reimbursed. She answers
e-mails herself, and does not find this takes
much time. Plus, it
makes her happy when patients e-mail her to express
their gratitude for
her sites. "I really
enjoy and appreciate the availability of the online site and online
communication,"
one patient wrote. "To me it is a great time-saver." Another wrote, "It
is the best thing
any doctor could have done,
and should do."
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