Crucial Elements of a Healthcare Website
As a healthcare provider, your website is not just an informational piece about you & your services. It is an extension of your physical practice and is held to a higher standard. Beyond the effectiveness of your design & content, there are legal considerations to be had. Below are the crucial elements any healthcare website must have in place.
At the time you are reading this, outside life may be back to normal (or perhaps we’ve adjusted to the “new normal”). Yet it’s still crucial for every practice to always be striving to achieve the 4 strategies above. This means that no matter if your practice is struggling or you are succeeding beyond your wildest dreams, there are always new ways you can use simple technology to get more efficient, bring in new patients and increase revenue.
HIPAA Compliance
Did you know that appointment requests transmitted through a healthcare provider’s website are considered protected health information (PHI)? The best way to secure the transfer of information from your site is to:
- Have a secure website. When you visit your homepage, does it start with https://? The “s” indicates that it is secure. You may also see an image of a locked padlock next to your web address which also indicates that it is secure. Having a secure website will ensure that the initial transmission of PHI to the web server is safe.
- The appointment request information should be encrypted both in transmission and at rest. If you receive the appointment request via email, you can use an email service that is HIPAA compliant. An alternative is to use HIPAA compliant forms embedded throughout your website. No matter which avenue you use, it’s important you get a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) from your chosen supplier.
TIP: If you go the HIPAA compliant email route (vs. secure forms), you need to make sure that your web developer uses an embedded form on your site that does NOT save the patient/lead information on their server. Because if your web developer has any access to appointment request information from a patient, you are required to have a BAA with your web developer as well as your email provider.
ADA Accessibility
Did you know that Title 3 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to websites of “public accommodation”, which includes healthcare providers? Websites with significant inaccessible components can be seen as discriminatory against persons with disabilities. In fact, “lawsuits alleging inaccessible websites and mobile apps accounted for at least a fifth of the total number of ADA Title III lawsuits filed in federal courts in 2019. Most plaintiffs in these cases are blind and claim that the websites in question do not work with their screen reader software which reads website content aloud.” This is crucial information because there has been a surge of healthcare providers using free widgets on their website that appear to make their site ADA compliant, but unfortunately these widgets many times do not work with screen reader software and thus, makes your website inaccessible to the blind.
Website Design
When someone visits your site, it takes them 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds!) to subconsciously decide whether or not you are a good fit for them. When they view your homepage, they make a snap judgement about your credibility based on the quality of your website design. It’s crucial that the design of your site reflects the quality of your work.
Text Format
If you catch their initial attention with design, they will spend an average of 5.59 seconds scanning the homepage’s written content. Paragraphs of verbiage aren’t read because the Primal Brain likes to save time whenever it can. Headlines are meant to grab a visitor’s attention, followed by subheadings to draw them in, and then links to more detailed information for those who want it.
Clear Call to Action with Multiple Communication Options
A clear call to action with multiple contact methods listed throughout your homepage and website is also essential. What age do you think of when someone mentions a Millennial? It’s anyone between the ages of 24-39 years old and they make up 25% of the U.S. population! As a dental professional, your practice needs to target Millennials to thrive.
Yet most websites primarily offer a phone number to call and schedule an appointment. 81% of Millennials get apprehension anxiety before summoning up the courage to make a call. Thus, for a website to effectively connect potential new patients to your practice, it needs to offer multiple forms of contact.
Emotional Appeal
Your website is the foundation of your practice’s marketing efforts and shouldn’t be taken lightly. No matter how a person hears of you (referral, direct mail, social media), almost everyone will go to your site to check you out. But here’s the kicker…they aren’t really there to find out about you. At least not initially. They want to know how you are going to impact their life or their children’s lives. How will you benefit them? If your homepage is basically an online pamphlet about you and your services, then we strongly recommend you update your site.
Need An Update? You generally have 3 website options…
If you’ve determined your website needs to be updated, you generally have 3 different options:
- Economy website builder platforms (e.g. Wix , Squarespace , GoDaddy Website Builder , etc), allow you to build and maintain a website for a low monthly fee. This option may seem budget-friendly, but it requires you to learn the platform and do all of the design and development work yourself. Also, you may have to settle for a website that is not what you wanted, as features are generally limited to the platform’s available tools.
- Companies who offer highly templated, industry-specific websites with generic content. These websites are then “customized” with your logo, colors, practice information and the specific services you offer. Beware that many of these companies will use the SAME verbiage/content on your site as they do for every other client. Google highly frowns upon this approach and it could hurt your local search ranking.
- Custom designed websites ensure you get a website that is truly unique to your practice with the features you want. Good custom websites typically run between $5,000 to $10,000, with about half due upfront and the remaining balance broken up into 1-2 payments. But the initial website build is only one part of your expense. Websites require hosting and ongoing maintenance, not to mention content updates and SEO work.
BrilliantDoc believes you deserve a premium website at an affordable price.
As a healthcare provider, you improve people’s lives. To show our appreciation we want to improve the process of marketing your practice. That’s why we offer healthcare providers an all-inclusive custom website subscription of $495/mo that includes:
- HIPAA Compliant appointment requests
- Premium ADA Compliance Tools
- Website Security with Daily Backups
- World-Class Hosting
- Optimization for SEO
- Ongoing Maintenance & Technology Updates
- All future website design & content updates for as long as you maintain your subscription – you’ll never need a new site again!
- Concierge Service
Contact BrilliantDoc
Contact BrilliantDoc at (888) 337-6278 or email us at [email protected]
LIMITED TIME BONUS
Digitize your New Patient Intake Forms into a HIPAA compliant, online packet for FREE!*
*This is a limited time offer.Limit 1 digital New Patient Intake Packet per website subscription. This promotion is only available to clients located in the United States. BrilliantDoc reserves the right to modify or cancel the offer at any time. Promotional discounts, products and/or services are nontransferable, not for resale, and not redeemable for cash.