A question that we as marketing consultants would of course answer with a resounding YES. However, if you were to ask doctors or dentists this question, you would currently hear a "no" from around one in two. Even if you would hardly think it possible - in 2015, around 50% of doctors still do not have their own website [1, 2, 3]. How can this be? Why do doctors refuse to have their own online presence at a time when almost everyone is constantly online with their smartphone?
Around 50% of doctors and dentists do not have their own Practice homepage
In our experience, this is usually for the following reasons:
1) Doctors who have been in private practice for many years often take the view that it used to be possible without a practice website and that this is still the case today.
2) Due to the good utilisation of the practice, a practice website is not considered necessary.
3) Reports on Warnings (e.g. due to a missing imprint) have led to the practice website being considered legally risky.
What do we have to say in response?
Re 1)
Long-standing doctors and dentists have a large patient base that has been built up over decades and enjoy a high level of recognition, particularly among the older generation, as well as a broad referral base depending on the speciality. It may be that a practice website is not particularly high on the list of priorities here, and rightly so.
However, doctors who have been practising for many years will sooner or later have to deal with the handover of their practice. By then at the latest, it can be a disadvantage if the patient base has "aged along" with the practice. Because the fact is that younger patients are more demanding and increasingly see themselves as customers. And with the self-image of a "customer", they look for the best offer on the market - through research, which nowadays almost always starts on the web.
Re 2)
Practices that have no appointments available for months (even though they do not have a practice website) are understandably too busy managing their workload to bother with creating a practice website. In most cases, these are practices that either have a unique selling point in their location, have no competition in the region or primarily benefit from referrals. Each practice owner must decide for themselves whether this situation can change in the medium term (e.g. through a new MVZ in the neighbourhood or through a sudden drop in referrals because the referrer is no longer active). As in medicine, the following also applies in Practice marketingPrevention is better than cure.
Re 3)
There are indeed a few rules to follow when publishing a practice website as a medical professional. Our specialised Practice marketing agency knows the pitfalls, however, so we can claim that none of our clients has ever received a warning letter because of the website we developed. However, if you put together your practice website yourself after work or commission a student to do it for pocket money, the result is probably not only less professional, but the risk of legal faux pas is also higher.
This is why doctors need a practice website
As a practice owner, you should also consider the following points:
- More than 70 % of patients search online for a suitable doctor [4].
- Every year, 8 million Germans move house. As a result, people are often looking for a new doctor [5].
- 86 % of patients obtain information about health topics online [4].
- Even one in four people over 60 use Google to search for a doctor [4].
- 66 % start their doctor search on Google and in the next step view the practice homepages of the medical practices found [6].
- Those born after 1980 are referred to as digital natives (see Wikipedia) who can hardly imagine life without the Internet. This target group in particular will become increasingly important for doctors in future due to their age.
Sources
[1] http://www.apotheken-anzeiger.de/studie-zur-online-praesenz-von-zahnaerzten-ber-50-der-zahnarztpraxen-in_721301/
[2] http://www.aerzteblatt.de/nachrichten/53106/Viele-Aerzte-verzichten-wegen-Rechtsrisiken-auf-eigene-Website
[3] Sander T.: I don't need a practice website, ZWP 7+8/2015, p. 30.
[4] jameda patient study 2014
[5] Source: Relocation statistics German relocation market.
[6] Docrelations® study "Patients win on Facebook", 2013
