If you're like many physicians, you are already working increasing numbers of hours for a shrinking salary. The biggest concern that physicians seem to have about the prospect of offering email to their patients is opening the floodgates. They also worry about patients who tend to ramble. The reality for most physicians is that the anticipated tidal wave of messages simply does not happen. For one thing, email is a substitute for telephone calls and office visits, so time spent on email is gained on other tasks.
Most patients have better things to do than to email their doctor constantly.
You should never hesitate to tell patients that the topic they are asking about requires more than just an email exchange, and call them or have them make an appointment. If you re concerned about email volume, you can have a sticker printed with your address, so it can be placed on the back of your business card. Then the service is offered only to selected patients. As another solution, you can set up triage systems for email just as you do for the telephone. Some large practices handle their email communications this way.