Actually, Santos, I do have a website. But, one cannot schedule appointments online. I have not yet migrated to giving them the ability to download forms but I am not opposed to that. I too have a mostly older population and asking them to get on the computer would be disasterous. But the factor which drives me more is not that my patients are not computer savvy but that I am an old fogey. I still believe medicine is a service industry and that involves face-to-face interaction. I do not have voice mail (I personally cannot stand it). When patients call they get to talk to someone they know. Someone whose face or voice they recognize from a previous office visit. Someone who has helped them previously or knows they can no longer drive or knows they need their meds delivered or knows their husband died last month. I am skeptical that any technology present or future will be able to provide that kind of personal interaction.
And, believe it or not, I think almost all patients would really prefer to see you face-to-face. If a patient calls in wanting a script for an antibiotic for a sore throat and my staff replies, "Oh gee, Mrs. Catarrh, you sound like you do not feel well at all. I am sure the doctor would like to see you in the office," most patients are happy that you care so much about them to notice just how crappy they feel.
Even though I do my banking on-line, I would prefer to go back 20 years where I knew all the tellers in my bank. Where I could call and talk to Mrs. Lire who goes to my church. But since I no longer feel my bank cares about me and because when I call I get someone's voice mail or, worse yet, someone in Pittsburgh, I may as well just bank on-line.
But, like I said, I am and old fogey. I will now cautiously descend from my soapbox.
Leslie
