The email usually arrives on a Tuesday. Your web person is retiring, or their IT shop is closing, and they want to "get you sorted" before the end of the month. You are seeing patients. The website is the last thing you meant to think about this week.
You can get through this without taking the site down. The order matters.
First, don't panic, and don't change anything yet
Do not point the domain at a new host because someone said to do it today. Do not reset every password before you know which email receives the reset. A nameserver change made in a hurry is how a practice site goes blank on a Friday.
Leave the live site where it is until you can log in to the accounts below. Write down what you have. Then decide the next step with the person who is leaving still in the room, or still answering email.
Website maintenance services exist for the months after a handoff, when nobody is clearly responsible and small things quietly break. The handoff itself is the logins.
The four logins you need before they leave
Ask for these while your web person is still glad to help. Sit with them, or on a call, and sign in yourself. Watching them sign in is not the same thing.
Domain registrar
This is the company where the domain name is registered. It may not be the company that built the site. If you cannot renew the domain, the site and any email on that domain can stop when the renewal date hits.
Hosting
This is where the files live, and where the bill for keeping the site online is paid. You want the account owner, the renewal date, and a way in. If they host many clients in one account, ask how your site is separated and how it moves out.
Website admin
This is the editor: the place you would change a provider's bio or a holiday closure. Get your own user, not a shared password. If the site is a locked template, say so out loud. Replacing your practice website is the path when the tool itself will not come with you.
Google Business Profile and Analytics
The listing patients see on Google, and the analytics that show whether anyone visits, are often in a different login from the website. Ask to be added as an owner on the Business Profile, not only as a manager, and ask for access to analytics. The steps for a sale are in what happens to your practice website when you sell. You need the same access even if you are not selling. You just need the site to survive a retirement.
How to check who owns your domain
Go to ICANN Lookup and search your domain name. The result shows the registrar. That is the company to call or log in to.
The public record may list a privacy service instead of your name. That is common, and it does not mean you are locked out. It means the public page will not answer the question. The registrar account will.
If the registrar account email is your web person's personal address, ask them to add you before they close that inbox. A reset link sent to a closed mailbox is how a domain gets stuck.
Questions to ask your web person this month
Use these while they are still your web person. Write down the answers.
- Which company is the registrar, the host, and the email host? Are they the same company?
- What dates do the domain and hosting renew, and which card is charged?
- Where is a current backup, and have you ever restored it?
- Which email receives password resets for the editor, the domain, and Google?
- Are patient forms stored in the website, in email, or in another tool? Who can export them?
- What will you hand me on your last day, and what will you not be able to touch after that?
- If I hire someone else, will you do one introduction call?
You are not accusing them of anything. You are closing a loop they may have held for a decade.
Choosing who looks after the site next
The next person needs to do two jobs: keep the site up, and keep patients able to use it. Web design for healthcare practices is what a rebuild looks like when the old tool cannot come along. If the current site can stay, website maintenance is the care after the move.
Accessibility and HIPAA-aware forms
Patients have to be able to read the site, reach the buttons, and finish a form. That includes people using a keyboard, a phone, or a screen reader. Start with the checks on practice website accessibility, and with Egmer's page on accessible websites.
A free accessibility scanner can look at one page. It is a limited automated scan, a first look. A high score does not mean a site is fully accessible or compliant. An automated scan or a widget is a good starting point. Fixing the issues at the foundation, in the code, is the gold standard.
Ask the next partner, in plain language, where form submissions go and who can open them. Healthcare practices handle sensitive information. "HIPAA-aware" is a fair question to ask. It is not a certification, and this article is not a compliance review. Your own compliance advisor is who answers whether a form setup meets your obligations.
Hosting and care plans
Ask who owns the site and the domain after you hire them. Ask what the monthly care includes, and what happens if you leave. A care plan should not be the only place the logins exist. You, or someone at the practice, should be able to get in.
If you want a person to walk through the mess with you, book a call. That is a conversation, not a promise about rankings or a finish date.
A real example: a Colorado law firm whose long-time IT provider retired
Egmer has been in this situation with a Colorado law firm whose long-time IT provider retired. That is the whole example we are willing to publish. We are not naming the firm. We are not describing a city inside Colorado. We are not claiming a result: no ranking, no traffic number, no "it all went perfectly."
The useful part for a practice owner is the shape of the problem. One person had held the technical relationship for a long time. When that person retired, the website still had to be looked after by someone the firm could reach. The work was a handoff, done with the retiring provider, not a scramble after they were gone.
If that sounds like your month, start with the four logins. Then decide whether you are keeping the site or replacing it.
When you want a written plan for the marketing that has to keep going, see Egmer's Sell-Ready Marketing Snapshot.
No legal, tax, or financial advice. No promised rankings, AI recommendations, compliance, or valuation outcomes.