Executive summary
The web-site design industry was asked to research the benefits of putting up a website for a senior GP surgery, which has 15 members. The objective of this report is to advise a GP group on weather it will be beneficial to put up a website.
This report will show the results of various research undertaken by a web-site design industry (such as research from the internet, questionnaires etc.).
The key finding of this report is that overall it will be beneficial for the GP partners to put up a website. These benefits will be more apparent in the long term. Research shows that putting up a website will attract more patients to the GP surgery & will save time for the surgery on handling patients.
Introduction
This report will be about advising a GP surgery on weather it would be beneficial to put up a website or not. The web-site design industry which has undertaken the task will try to cover this task by doing various research into the website industry, weigh the benefits and disadvantages of having a web-site and finally decide weather it would be beneficial or not to put up the website. Questionnaires will also be distributed and the results collected to help making the final decision.
FINDINGS
The GP surgery that will be in the heart of this report has 15 GP’s, this is large number compared to the average GP surgeries that are in the area. The GP surgery is in the middle of a busy town in London, from research it has been established that 45% of households in London now have internet access at homes, and this number is increasing very fast. The future for internet looks very prosperous, more people are starting to use it and more and more businesses are reaching their customers through it.
There are a lot of medical & prescription internet sites. Many of these give medical advice to patients & prescribe medicines for them. Last year 450 thousand people had their medicines prescribed online & this number is increasing. This online industry is worth over £4 billion pounds in the UK which is a large value.
Basic contents of the Website
The website should contain at least the flowing contents in order to achieve its basic aim. These are as followings;
- Opening hours and booking system
- Address of the surgery
- Contact Details
- Map with the location
- Name and numbers of doctors
- The clinics available
- Any other information relevant to the patients
Benefits of the Website
For Patient
- It will be faster, easier & more clear for them to take advise over the net before they actually decide to visit the surgery.
- The patients can book their appointments online.
- Existing patients can have medicines prescribed repeatedly without having to visit the surgery
- The website can be accessed all the time unlike the surgery which is only open during strict day times
- Patient wannabees can fill in the simple registration forms online before visiting the surgery for full registration, this saves time & more applications are successful.
For Surgery
- More advertisement for the surgery therefore higher penetration to the customer base resulting in more customers in the long run
- Higher profits in the long run as the short term expenses will be closed after a certain period of time
- Staff spend less time taking calls or advising patients therefore they have more time to do other stuff
- Staff can update website easily
Disadvantages of the Website
Patient
- There are people who don’t know how to access the internet (especially elderly people), & some people can’t access the internet at all
- No one-to-one advice therefore not all the questions can be answered
- Information over the net is insecure – hackers can penetrate into the system & expose, change or damage important information, or use them for bad deeds.
Surgery
- There is a high start up costs for the surgery to put up the website.
- Information over the net is insecure – hackers can penetrate into the system & expose, change or damage important information, or use them for bad deeds.]
Government Regulations
It is illegal to subscribe DRUGS over the internet; this means that our GP surgery can not subscribe drugs. This will be a disadvantage for the GP surgery as it means fewer medicines will be prescribed over the internet
THE DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998
“Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully. Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purpose. Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and, where necessary, kept up to date. Personal data shall be accurate. Personal data processed for any purpose shall not be kept longer then necessary. Personal data shall be processed in accordance with the rights of the data subjects under this act. Appropriate technical & organisational measures shall be taken. Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic area.”
Internet Source - http://www.lancs.ac.uk/iss/rules/dataprot.htm
Hackers and Security Issues
Since the internet will be available for anyone to use the surgery will need to put up security systems for people who may have destructive means of using the system i.e. Hackers.
Personal information about the patients will be in threat by hackers. This is not the only threat imposed by hackers the hackers could also damage the website which could cause damage worth large sums of money.
Therefore its is essential for the surgery to put up security measures, these can be in the form of authorised logging in systems, back up systems for important information, therefore if the system fails the relevant information can be retrieved.
Viruses
Viruses are also a big security issue in the world of internet.
“What can a virus do? Delete all content from your hard disk, extract mailing lists, leave a 'back door' to simplify access to your computer by hackers. Really, just about anything that your computer can do may be utilized by a virus.”
Internet Source - http://www.creativesoftwareinc.com/news/css_news_200107a.htm
The surgery needs to have a protection against virus attacks made from the world of internet. These measures could be taken by using anti-virus software for any information they might wont to get from the internet
Questionnaire & Analysis
20 Questionnaires were distributed randomly to people. The results of the questionnaire have proved very useful.
According to the results 93% of the respondents want to see a website of their GP, this shows that people are willing to use the website.
About half of the patients use the surgery once a year or less, this implies that the website is not likely to be used very frequently by the same patient. The website should be very clear and understandably & user friendly.
Two third of the patients would prefer to book their appointments online. This indicates that the website is likely to decrease phone calls to the surgery.
75% of the patients see the website as being secure & confidential. This is a great majority therefore online subscriptions are likely to be high which will save more money for the surgery.
Conclusions
In the present conditions that we are facing it seems that putting a website will be more beneficial that a disadvantage. The benefits of putting up a website will increase in the long run as the use of internet will increase & the internet will penetrate into more homes.
The benefits of putting up the web-site clearly overweigh the drawbacks. It will cost a large amount of money to put up the website but in the long run, the return back of putting up the website will over exceed start up costs. Therefore it is very advisable for the GP surgery to put up its own website.
Bibliography
- Information on the Data protection act
-http://www.lancs.ac.uk/iss/rules/dataprot.htm - Accessed on- 9-3-2003
- Statistics about the household PC’s
-www.london.gov.uk/gla/publications/ e-london/londoners-online2.pdf Accessed on - 9-3-2003