How to Optimize Your Hospital Website’s Find-a-Doctor Tool — and Put Users First

Noel Coleman, president of Doctor.com Enterprise

The strategic core of most hospital or health system websites is a strong and user-friendly physician directory, or “Find a Doctor” tool. Optimizing your strategy and your tool’s functionality is a digital healthcare marketing imperative.

In last month’s article, Noel Coleman mapped five strategic goals for your “Find a Doctor” tool. In our new article, he offers a roadmap with eight key steps to get it done — whether you are starting from scratch or simply strengthening an existing physician directory.

“Last year, I was curious to see if there was any social chatter on Twitter about the travails of finding a doctor. Turns out, there is a lot—and most of it isn’t positive,” Coleman says. Here’s a sample of what he discovered:

• Finding a doctor is hard.
• Why is finding a doctor so hard?! I just need someone to look at my lungs and tell me why I can’t breathe!
• Who knew finding a doctor is actually a challenge?
• Why is finding a doctor the most difficult thing in the world?
• I’m so close yet so far on the “finding a doctor” front.
• Forget trying to find a boyfriend. I’d be happier just actually finding a doctor I like and who is good.

Coleman offers some ways your organization can step up to address these types of concerns and make sure your users can easily find a doctor in your network. For starters, it’s important to remember to put your users first:

“What all these comments serve to remind us is that the USER should be the focus of your physician directory. In fact, whether process design, user interface design, or experience design, your efforts should all begin with an initial question: What would it be like to go through this as a [insert target audience]? Successful directories have a basis in empathetic design,” he says.

For 7 additional suggestions from Coleman, read our full article now:

Are You Maximizing Your “Find a Doctor” Strategy? (Part 2)

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President