Are you a Consultant without a website?   11 comments

Sometimes Consultants just feel it isn’t right to mix Medicine with Marketing. Healthcare is a necessity that everyone needs at some point in their life, whether they have the option of being seen privately or under the NHS it is required.
If a patient decides to be seen privately they want to know who, when and where. They need to gather as much information about the Consultant, what they specialise in, where their clinics are held, contact details and maybe how long they have been registered etc.
If anyone wants to find anything out where is the first place they normally look? Yellow pages, Thomson Local, I think you’ll find gone are the days of the phone books, the majority of people now look online for information about anything. Don’t  you?
Also can you always depend on a steady stream of private referrals from GP’s and insurance providers.  A number of employers are cutting back or withdrawing private health insurance as a benefit all together.  So looking at it on a long-term basis where will you get future referrals.
Having a website can be an excellent tool for patients and your private practice. It can be tasteful, there are even companies which deal specifically with healthcare websites. A website can give the information required to a prospective patient, as well as informing them on what to expect when they come for an appointment, applicable fees and possibly explaining the types of investigations that may be required. The more information a person can find on someone or something, the more likely they are to come to you. Even Consultants with a small private practice may benefit from a website.
From my own personal experience I know clients have found me on a well-known advertising website and have stated that they decided to contact me rather than anyone else as I had a direct link to my website from the advert. The same could apply to Consultants. They may be listed on a private hospital website but normally there is more than one Consultant in any given specialty. If there is link to your private website with more information, will prospective patients be more likely to contact you than try to find information about other Consultants clinics by having to call the hospital. If information is accessible and easily available it is highly likely they will choose your practice.
Some Consultants I know feel uncomfortable marketing themselves or their private practice, but you are just giving patients information to make an informed choice.  After all NHS hospitals now have their own websites giving information to patients and visitors.
One last thing, have you Googled yourself lately?

 

Posted December 18, 2011 by cmm in Blog

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11 responses to Are you a Consultant without a website?

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