Start small, then expand your Internet applications
Seize the opportunity to increase efficiency
Physicians who want to communicate with their patients electronically but are still a little leery of the practice can start small and gradually move into a more elaborate Web-based application as they, their staff, and their patients grow comfortable with it.
Tackle the e-mail appointment setting in increments, advises Peter J. Plantes, MD, medical director of LaurusHealth, a consumer and physician Internet company based in Irving, TX.
"Physicians have an initial concern about releasing control. A great first step would be to allow patients to e-mail the front desk, asking for an appointment and suggesting a time," Plantes says. The practice will allow consumers to communicate with their doctor 24-hours a day and get an e-mail reply back when it’s convenient for them.
Internet scheduling systems recently launched by HealthEappointments, a Bloomfield Hills, MI, developer of Internet-based business products, and Aelera Corp. of Atlanta, a developer of customer relationship management applications, both allow physicians to limit the number of appointments that can be scheduled electronically.
"Doctors are reluctant to show all their appointments. They can put out a few appointment slots on the Web and see how it goes, then increase it gradually," says Barry Shapiro, president and chief executive officer of HealthEappointments.
Here are some other tips for communicating with your patients and colleagues over the Internet:
- Make sure that you build a secure channel of communication between you and your patients or other physicians. Don’t communicate about sensitive or identifiable medical information on the open Internet, Plantes warns.
- Use your secure channel to communicate with your fellow physicians efficiently and effectively. "Physicians often play classic phone tag, leaving messages at each other’s office. The Internet offers an opportunity to communicate the details of patients cases in a timely manner," he adds.
- Involve your medical colleagues in the community in the electronic communication process. "If the entire medical staff of a health care organization puts themselves on a secure channel, primary care physicians and consultants can have a secure channel to communicate with each other. This makes the patient care more timely and more accurate," Plantes says.
- Balance your electronic communication with patients with face-to-face communications. The physician who mixes new technology with the traditional face-to-face relationship with patients is the one who is going to win, Plantes says.
"You can’t be just a techno-geek because you will lose all the traditional consumer-based approaches, and that won’t work with some segments of the population. On the other hand, a nontechnical practice is likely to be thought of by the general consumer population as not being sensitive to patient preference," Plantes says.
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