Why Maintenance Is Important

Our article published in GP Magazine.

One of the most common things we are told when someone is enquiring about web sites is 'my friend made one for us but now ....'

Add in here any excuse ranging from got a job, leaving the country, hasn't got the time anymore, and you begin to get the picture.

It’s great when someone you know offers to set up a web site for you, but remember it is only a quick fix, in the same way letting your mate fix your car is. At some stage in the future something will go astray and inevitably, your friend will be long gone. Leaving you with your broken web site and nowhere to turn.

The basics of creating a website, especially when using one of the many authoring packages like Microsoft Frontpage, appear simple. Click on a few pictures, copy and paste some text in and hey presto – a web site. As with everything though, below the surface are complexities that lay hidden until one day, usually the day you have better things to do, when they spring up and cause havoc.

GP's around the country are speaking out about the ever increasing pressures, placed on them by the government, that squeeze every last second of the day from them. Where then, in this equation would you place the maintenance of a web site?

It’s easy to leave the update until next week, or that vaccination reminder until you have some spare time, but where does that leave the patients. A website is there to inform and reassure patients that you are there, and to let them know you are keeping up with the many health initiatives that they have read or heard about elsewhere. It’s there to tell them how to go about things like ordering prescriptions or getting home visits. The things that often clog phone systems and take up the time of your staff.

The change is slow. Getting your patients to use your website requires a lot of work and publicising at every opportunity, but the rewards and savings in time alone are worth it. It only takes a mention of it whilst dealing with patients, and you will soon discover that it is used more often. When a patient enquires about holiday vaccinations, just slip in the phrase “If you or a friend has access to the internet, we have much more information on the web site, all free to read or print. I can write the address down if you like, or you’ll find it on your next letter.”

Once you start to build up a good user base, the most important thing next is to keep the site moving. Keeping adding articles and news. Keep your patients informed, keep them coming back and slowly the telephone calls will diminish. Monitor what patients ask for when they do telephone in, if its possible, migrate the information to the website.

The more information you provide, the more time you will save but the more time you will need to keep the information current and accurate.

There is nothing worse than visiting a web site and reading information on something that’s old news. Visiting a web site after 4 weeks to find nothing has changed is a big deterrent, so consider a proper maintenance plan. Many companies that provide web design will be able to help here, offering free monthly reminders, prompts and a full updating service. Not only does this maintain interest in your site, but also to ensure continuity throughout the site and freeing up some of your time as an added bonus.

Maintenance may also include regular service checks to make sure things are running as they should. Going a stage further with full maintenance and the complete care for your nurtured website can be undertaken for a small fee. Letting someone look after your site who has experience of the technical issues than can effect services, gives piece of mind and a single point of contact for any queries you or you patients may have.

You could easily spend a whole day trying to track down the reason your prescription forms are not being received, when experience will usually locate and fix the problem in a few minutes.
Is it a firewall problem? Those changes made by the PCT may have something to do with it. Could it be that last page I uploaded? Is my ISP making changes? Is there a routing problem? Are the DNS servers offline? Confused? Try thinking about all this in between seeing patients and answering questions from the staff.
Was it such a good idea to take on the web site myself after all?

If you do, or are planning to, provide a web service to your patients, consider a proper maintenance plan. A web site is an integral part of your practice in the same way up to date medical advice is. Would you give out of date medical advice to a patient?