Practice Growth · For clinicians

Healthcare Directory Listings Checklist for Women's Health Practices

By the Find Her Doctor editorial team · Updated November 1, 2026 · 5 min read

A directory listings checklist helps a practice claim the right profiles, standardize its core data, and keep every listing accurate as clinicians, locations and insurance contracts change. The order matters: build one master record, fix the upstream sources (NPPES, CAQH, health plans), then claim Google and the patient-facing directories, and put audits on a calendar. It's unglamorous work, and stale listings quietly cost you appointments.

A typical scenario: a patient calls a number from a directory, reaches a closed office or a clinician who left two years ago, and books somewhere else. Nobody at your front desk ever hears about it. That's the cost this checklist prevents.

Step 1: Build a master practice record

Before you touch a single listing, create one source of truth. A shared spreadsheet is fine.

Practice-level data

• Legal name and the public-facing name on your signage
• Each location: street address with suite or floor, ZIP, borough or county
• Main phone, fax, and any location-specific numbers
• Website URL and location page URLs
• Hours, including phone hours and holiday schedule
• Online booking link
• Organization NPI and tax ID (internal only)
• Delivering hospitals and hospital affiliations
• Insurance accepted, by plan and product (a carrier's commercial plan versus its Medicaid managed care plan are different answers, and New York patients search by both)
• Languages spoken at each location
• Accessibility features (step-free entrance, elevator, accessible exam table)

Clinician-level data

• Full name and credentials (MD, DO, CNM, LM, NP)
• Individual NPI and taxonomy
• Locations and days at each
• Accepting new patients (yes, no, OB only, GYN only)
• Languages
• Board certification and training, as you want it described publicly
• Clinical interests
• Headshot

Pick one format for name, address and phone (NAP), "Suite 4B" versus "#4B," and use it everywhere.

Step 2: Fix the upstream sources

A lot of patient-facing listings pull from these, so errors here propagate:

• NPPES for every clinician and the organization. See updating NPPES.
• CAQH ProView, updated and re-attested (every 120 days)
• Medicare (PECOS), if you participate
• New York Medicaid (eMedNY), if you participate
• Each health plan's directory, through the provider portal or your provider relations contact

Under the No Surprises Act, plans must verify directory information at least every 90 days, and providers are expected to submit updates when information changes. Answer those verification requests promptly; a missed one can get a clinician suppressed or shown with stale data.

Step 3: Claim search and map profiles

• Google Business Profile for each location, plus practitioner profiles if you choose. See Google Business Profile for OB/GYN practices.
• Apple Business Connect, so Apple Maps shows accurate details
• Bing Places for Business
• Hospital or health system "find a doctor" pages, if your clinicians are affiliated

Step 4: Claim the patient-facing directories that actually show up

Don't chase every directory. Claim the ones patients see:

1. Search "OB/GYN [your neighborhood]," "midwife [your county]," and each clinician's name, in an incognito window.
2. Note every directory on the first two pages.
3. Claim those first.

Typical categories:

• National physician review and booking directories
• Regional and specialty directories focused on women's health, such as ours (our Manhattan and Nassau County OB/GYN pages are examples of what patients land on)
• Professional society "find a provider" tools, where membership allows
• Booking or telehealth marketplaces, if you use them

Record the login owner, the email used and the date claimed in your master sheet. Directory logins tend to walk out the door when a staff member leaves.

Step 5: Fill in every field

Partial profiles underperform. For each listing:

• NAP matches the master record exactly
• Specialty and subspecialty
• Insurance accepted
• Accepting new patients status
• Languages
• Hospital affiliations
• Hours
• Booking link
• Headshots and office photos
• A short bio written for patients, not for a CV
• Services offered, in patient language ("IUD insertion," not "58300")

Languages deserve extra attention here. In a city where many patients search for a Spanish-, Chinese-, Russian-, Bengali- or Yiddish-speaking clinician, it's often the deciding field.

Step 6: Clean up duplicates and stale entries

Common New York problems:

• A clinician listed at three addresses from different points in their career
• A former office still showing as open
• Two Google profiles for one location
• A departed clinician listed with your phone number

Use each platform's process to merge duplicates or mark locations closed. For departed clinicians, ask them to update their own records, and request corrections where the platform lets the practice do it.

Step 7: Put audits on the calendar

Name an owner. "The front desk handles it" usually means nobody does.

Step 8: Measure what you get

Track:

• Calls and booking clicks from Google Business Profile
• Referral traffic from directories in your website analytics
• New patients by source from your intake form
• Number of listings verified accurate this quarter

A simple "How did you hear about us?" question at intake, with "online directory" as an option, tells you which listings deserve more effort. Pair that with online scheduling and you can see the full path from search to booked visit.

Quick reference

• Master record built and approved
• NPPES updated for all clinicians and the organization
• CAQH current and attested
• Medicare and NY Medicaid enrollment current (if applicable)
• Health plan directories verified
• Google, Apple and Bing profiles claimed and complete
• Hospital find-a-doctor pages correct
• Top patient-facing directories claimed and complete
• Duplicates and stale listings resolved
• Owner and audit schedule set

Claim your free listing

Our directory covers OB/GYNs, midwives, fertility specialists and women's health NPs across New York City, Long Island and the Hudson Valley. Claim your free listing to complete your profile in a few minutes. If you want your practice to appear more prominently in your area, featured placement is available at /advertise/.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• CMS — National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES)
• CMS — No Surprises Act provider directory requirements
• Google — Business Profile guidelines

This article is for general education and is not medical advice. It does not replace an evaluation by a licensed clinician who knows your history. If you think you have a medical emergency, call 911.