If
you are still using a typewriter for your office dictation or filing your
insurance claims by mailing HC1500 forms, then perhaps this report is not for
you. But, if you want an
inexpensive and easy way to enhance your practice and service to your patients,
then it is the time for your practice to start using the Internet.
Technology is rapidly changing the way we live and
work. Perhaps much of our present
economic prosperity is directly related to our technological success.
Soon the Internet may be used as frequently as we use our phone,
with advantages of the
Internet including the fact that it can manage virtually unlimited amounts of
information and operation 24 hours per day.
Urology Surgical Associates in Springfield was the first local office to offer
its own web site [1]. Since then
several other offices have posted their own sites [2-5].
Perhaps the best office web site in Springfield was set up by Terry Nye,
M.D. for the Department of Internal Medicine at Smith-Glynn-Calloway Clinic [2]
but Dr. Cady’s office web site [5] is equally as good and
designed for a national market.
Setting up an office web site is
really as easy as completing five basic steps.
Setup can be completed for under $150 and yearly maintenance fees can be as low as $250.
So with such limited expense, what are you waiting for?
| 1 | Authoring Program | FrontPage 2000 perhaps easiest & most functionality Flash & Dreamweaver are for experts & if you want multimedia do not need to know html or javascript code for a simple site |
| 2 | Reserve Address | Internic now at http://www.networksolutions.com costs $75-$150 to register your name becomes your property |
| 3 | ISP | any isp can host for you & location & size make
little difference ISP supplies CGI for basic forms & FrontPage extensions ISP supplies up to 50 megs of space, unlimited ftp uploads, aliasing rates typically about $20 / month, charged monthly with no minimum and $10-20/mo extra if you add a database link |
| 4 | Design | hardest part and 1/2 your time will be deciding what to post
& then setting it up so it looks ok. A beginner can make a web page is an hour or so. Digital Cameras are easy to borrow & work well. Kinko's will digitize any picture w/o a copywright as a jpg for $3. Use GIF for graphics, animated drawings, and drawings with a background that blends in with the page background. Use JGP (JPEG) for any picture with faces, or many variable colors or shapes. Keep picture size below 10k and total page size below 100k. |
| 5 | Post | any FTP program will work. They are usually free
software that links your computer to the ISP so you see a Windows FileManager type structure & can upload, download, move, copy, delete. Keep you graphics in one subdirectory. The first page of each subdirectory is index.htm. Stay with 8.3 file names & avoid capital letters. Windows truncates names that are not 8.3 & Unix & Linux are case specific. |
Consider: e-mail on your business card
aliased e-mail to your office departments
a submit form to your receptionist for registration
pdf files made by Acrobat to have instructions & information that will
always view exactly as
you made it
profile your services & providers to help those trying to select a doctor
give your patients links that you think provide reliable info about your type of
services
references
[1] www.urologydoc.com
Urology Surgical
Associates
[2] www.stjohns.net/adultmedicine/sgccim
Smith-Glynn-Calloway Clinic, Dept of Internal Medicine
[3] www.adultmedicine.com
Whiteside Adult Medicine
[4] http://members.aol.com/adultdoc/scim.htm
Springfield Clinic of Internal Medicine
[5] www.headachecare.com/hcc/01.htm
Headache Care Center
[6] www.networksolutions.com
Internic
[7] www.adultmedicine.com/physicians
list of key places for Medical Searches
[8] www.erworld.com
Dr. Clark's ER web site
[9] www.parentsplace.com
Dr. Steele's Pediatric web site