What should you look for in a web designer for a medical practice?
Ask how patient information collected through the site is handled and where it is hosted, because any form or booking tool touching health information sits inside your regulatory obligations. Then confirm you own the domain, hosting and files, and that staff can update hours and clinicians without a paid change request.
The questions that separate providers
How do you handle patient information collected through the site? Any form, booking tool or intake questionnaire that touches health information sits inside your regulatory obligations. A designer who has not considered this is a risk. What your practice specifically requires is a matter for your own counsel and compliance adviser — but the designer needs to be able to work within whatever they specify.
Where will the data be hosted, and under what agreement? Ask directly about the arrangements they use with third-party services and whether the necessary agreements are in place.
Do you have examples of medical or regulated work? Ask to see live sites and check them.
Who owns everything at the end? Domain, hosting, files, content. The answer should be your practice, without qualification.
Can staff update content themselves? Practices change hours, add clinicians and adjust services constantly. A site requiring a paid change request for each is a running cost nobody budgeted for.
What the site actually has to do
Beyond compliance, a practice site earns its cost through a small number of functions:
- Make booking or contacting simple
- State which insurers are accepted and how billing works
- Explain what happens at a first appointment
- Present each clinician with credentials and registration
- Be findable locally, which for most practices means the Google Business Profile as much as the site
- Load quickly on a phone
A visually impressive site that does none of these is not worth buying.
Warning signs
- Guaranteed rankings or guaranteed patient numbers. Nobody controls either, and in healthcare an outcome promise is a compliance problem as well as a false one.
- Stock photography presented as your practice or your patients
- Testimonials or before-and-after images used without documented consent
- Claims about treatment outcomes written by a marketer rather than reviewed by a clinician
- A proprietary platform you cannot leave with
Anything published about clinical matters should be reviewed by someone qualified before it goes live. That is not the designer's judgement to make.
What it reasonably costs
Budget realistically. A practice site done properly — with booking, insurance information, clinician profiles and local search foundations — is not a few hundred dollars of template work.
BayouEdge is a solo practice run by James Henderson, working with businesses around Houston and South Texas. Published pricing starts at $2,500 setup and $750 a month, with larger builds at $5,500 and $1,500. For a multi-clinician or multi-location practice, $12,500 and $3,500.
That is not the cheapest available, and for a single practitioner who needs a simple presence quickly, it should not be.
Get the contract right
Written scope, deliverables listed, payment tied to milestones, ownership of everything at the end, and whatever data-handling terms your compliance adviser requires. Have a licensed attorney review anything you are unsure about — that is their role, not the designer's and not mine.
Frequently asked questions
What should I ask a designer first?
How they handle patient information collected through the site, where data is hosted and under what agreements. What your practice requires is for your counsel and compliance adviser to specify — the designer must be able to work within it.
What must a practice site actually do?
Make booking or contacting simple, state insurers accepted and how billing works, explain the first appointment, present clinicians with credentials, be findable locally, and load quickly on a phone.
What are the warning signs?
Guaranteed rankings or patient numbers, stock photography presented as your practice, testimonials or before-and-after images without documented consent, clinical claims written by a marketer, and a platform you cannot leave with.
Who should review clinical content?
Someone qualified, before it goes live. That is not the designer's judgement to make, and a designer who is comfortable writing treatment claims unreviewed is a risk.
What does a practice site cost?
BayouEdge publishes $2,500 setup and $750 a month for a single practitioner, $5,500 and $1,500 for a larger build, and $12,500 and $3,500 for multi-clinician or multi-location practices.