Quality marketing for your medical practice is hard to come by, and quality marketing at an affordable price is even more difficult to find. But a way that is exceptional and free? Let me introduce you to the marketing mammoth that is Google My Business.
Google My Business is a way to promote your practice using Google: the most widely used search engine in the world, proving access to roughly 80% of user searches – billions of searches – per day. Many medical practices are unaware of their ability to control their business listing in Google (for free!). Having accurate and customizable business information, displayed to local searchers, is a great way for a practice to present information to new patients as well as returning patients, whether or not the practice has its own independent website. Claiming a (free!) Google business page has many benefits and is so easy, anyone should be able to complete this marketing activity in very little time. For the purposes of this article, we explain the steps using PrognoCIS EHR, however, the same general approach should work for any EHR that provides a link for Patient Portal access.
Claim Your Google My Business Listing
First, you must claim your business. Claiming your business listing makes it easy to promote your practice and instantly respond to patient feedback. Go to https://www.google.com/business/.
Customize your business listing to show patients what you want them to see.
Finding your Patient Portal URL
Next, you must find your Patient Portal URL to put onto your business listing. Open up your PrognoCIS EHR client, click on the “i” on the top right corner:
A window should pop up. On the bottom left is the line, “Patient Portal: On (To copy link click here)”: Click on “click here” and your Patient Portal URL should appear. Copy that link!
Add your Patient Portal URL to your Google My Business Listing OR Website
The link that you just copied can be put onto your Google listing or website. For your Google listing, simply copy the URL and paste it onto the website section.
To put it on your website, simply create a place to link to the PrognoCIS Patient Portal.
Final Thoughts
To create a successful practice, having quality care is only part of the task. Clients and prospective patients should be able to find your practice without having to jump through hoops. Utilizing the Patient Portal function of PrognoCIS increases the traffic to your website by using the powerful functions of Google My Business. It saves your employees valuable time and resources by avoiding troubleshooting through a support line. It also fulfills a Meaningful Use Objective, “providing patients the ability to view online, download and transmit their health information within four business days of the information being available to the EP”. Taking advantage of the Patient Portal is a surefire way to expand the reaches of your practice to the world.
Also Read – 8 Amazing Healthcare Marketing Ideas