Sites4Professionals Site Management System

Click to go back to the SMS home page

NEW ON the 24 February 2005 Click here to read about our intranet add-on - a secure site that only your practice team can see.

How the package works

This page explains just how easy it is to set up your own highly professional practice website.

If you prefer, we will do the setting-up for you at no extra charge. Simply ensure that you have all the information mentioned below to hand and call 07746 648993.

You can also choose to have all site updates done by us - just email your instructions using the Support/suggestion form link at the bottom of the Site Management System home-page. Click here for details...

• Filling in one online form creates your entire site in seconds, with a home-page, a repeat prescription ordering system, a suggestions-and-comments box and a patient satisfaction survey
• Fill in a little more basic information about the practice and you have a page with clinic details
• Another short form picks up details about each of your practice premises to generate a contact page with address, a street-map link, opening hours and phone/fax/email details
• Finally, entering basic information about everyone who works at the practice generates a complete 'About us' section

All this can be done in a matter of minutes by people with no knowledge of websites and no more than normal office IT skills.

From there on, you have complete freedom to create and organise web pages and publish documents. You have total control of how users navigate your content, and can edit both it and the structure at any time - yet you don't have to do anything 'technical'.

Setting up your site

On the log-in page, click the link to set up a new site. This will take you to the Site creation form.

Simply point and click in each of the boxes and type the information requested. There is no need to press the Enter key - just click in the next field. Alternatively, you can press the Tab key to move to the next field. The form asks for the following information:

• The name of the practice
  This is the name you want to be displayed in the top right-hand corner of every page on your site (until you send us a logo or ask us to design one for you), so be sure you type exactly the name you want. This needn't be the 'official' name of the practice - you will be asked for that when you fill in your practice details later. For example, the Charnwood Surgery site is actually run by Dr D Farmer and Partners.
• The practice's national code
  This is the code consisting of a letter and a five-digit number. It is very important that this is correct, so please double-check when you have entered it.
• The PCT to which the practice is contracted
  This is chosen from a dropdown box which shows all the PCTs in alphabetical order.
• The LMC discount buying group to which the practice subscribes
  This is chosen from a dropdown box which only shows those which have negotiated a special deal for the Sites4Doctors package. If yours has not, please ask them to contact us, mentioning your practice name; if a deal is concluded, you will receive a discount on your set-up charge and the group will receive commission on all sites that result from its recommendation.
• First name and last name
  The person named will automatically be set up as the main contact with full administrator rights for everything to do with your site, so if you want someone else to take on this rôle you should enter their name.
• The main contact's position or title
  This could be GP, Senior Partner, Practice Manager or even, in some practices, IT co-ordinator.
• The main contact's personal electronic mail address
  This is the address to which the main contact's login username and password will be sent automatically, so please double-check that it and the other email addresses are correct.
• The address of the practice
  Press the Enter key to start each new line.
• The practice's postcode
• The main contact's telephone number
  This should probably be the main practice contact number rather than a direct dial number.
• The email address to which patients' repeat prescription requests should be sent
• The email address to which we should send invoices
• Your three preferred domain names
  The 'www.' and '.co.uk' are added automatically, so you only need to type the bit between. Enter these in descending order of preference (favourite first) and we will register the first available name.
• A headline for your initial home-page
  You will be able to edit this later.
• The text for your initial home-page
  You will be able to edit this later.
• Other notes and comments
  This field allows you to include any additional information that is not catered for by the form.

Please check everything on the form and then click the Create site button.

What happens next?

In a matter of seconds, a lot happens automatically. (You can skip this section if you are not interested in the technology behind your site.)

• Most of the details you have given are recorded in our sites database
• The details of the main contact person and his/her automatically-created login ID and password are recorded in a separate database of Site Management System users
• A record for your practice is created in our practices database, ready for you to enter all the basic practice details that will appear on your site
• The folders that will hold your site files are created on our web server
• The database that will hold the details of your site's folders, pages and pictures is created
• Your default home-page (with your headline and text), page template files and other pages are copied into your folders
• An email message is sent to your main contact person confirming the information given and notifying that person of his/her login ID and password for the Site Management System. This message also provides links to your skeleton site (at this stage of the form 'http://www.sites4professionals.co.uk/cms/site99/' as your domain name has not yet been processed) and to the SMS itself - simply click this to get started.
• For contractual reasons, if your practice is in Southern Derbyshire an email form is sent to you. This enables you to confirm that you have considered the local NHS shared-services organisation's services before choosing the Sites4Doctors package.
• An email message is sent to webmaster@sites4professionals.co.uk containing all the information you have given and confirming that your site has been created
• To ensure a fast response, a text message is sent to the Sites4Doctors mobile phone, alerting us to the fact that you have set up a site!

What if I don't receive an email?

Your confirming email should arrive in no more than a few minutes. If it does not, your should use your own email system to send a message to webmaster@sites4professionals.co.uk. This will give us an address which we will check against your entries in our database. Then we will send your login ID and password.

Getting started

There are two jobs to be done before your site is ready for the public:

• Entering your basic practice information into the database
• Making any changes you wish to your home-page

Practice details

This is a simple form-filling task which might be best done by a member of the practice's administrative staff, who are probably more used to doing accurate data-entry than more senior members.

First the main practice form needs to be filled in: it will already contain the name, national code and PCT from the site creation form, together with large free-text boxes for details of Antenatal, Mother and Baby, Asthma, Well Man, Well Woman and Family Planning clinics run by the practice. These should contain dates, times, locations and any other information you wish to give patients. (If you run nay additional clinics, these can be described on separate web pages created later.

Then a form must be completed for each of the practice's premises, giving its name, address, postcode, telephone numbers and email address.

Finally, a form is completed for each GP and each other member of staff. This contains fields for last name, first name, title, job title, email address, gender, a free-text pen portrait, the filename of a photograph which you can upload, qualifications (GPs only), and partnership order (if you want GPs listed in order of seniority - if not, you can leave this blank and they will be sorted alphabetically). There are also tick-boxes for the various NHS contract services which GPs may offer.

Once this has been done, buttons for Surgery details, Clinics and About us will appear on your site pages, together with others for Repeat prescritpions and Patient survey (more to come). The 'bare bones' of your site Are complete.

Editing your home-page

This is a more creative job, using the site building and editing facilities of the SMS, to be done by someone who is concerned with the ethos and image of the practice. It will be that person's first encounter with the web-page creation and editing facilities of the Site Management System, which can be used to build a structure of folders and populate it with pages and documents.

Going live

While you are doing this, we will be registering your domain name, of the form www.practicename.co.uk. As soon as this has been confirmed and connected to your site, you will receive two emails:

• Confirmation that your site is live
  This will include a link which you can click for your first real, live visit./li>
• Your initial invoice
  This is for £200, which covers the whole setting-up process plus your first three months' hosting and support. It is due for payment within 30 days. Most customers are happy with an email invoice, but if you require a 'proper' paper one you should reply to the email asking for hard copy. Payment can be by cheque or direct transfer using the account details shown on the invoice.

If everything goes well, the next you will hear from us will be in three months, when you receive your second invoice covering the next year's hosting and support.