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Best Hospital Websites Put Patients First

 |  By Marianne@example.com  
   March 28, 2012

There are few things more frustrating on cyberspace than visiting a website and not being able to easily find what you need. It’s the online equivalent of walking into a grocery store abroad and having no idea where to find the milk. You’re forced to meander around, hoping to stumble across the correct aisle, which of course, is in the last place you’d think.



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Too many hospital websites hide the milk. I can’t tell you how many sites I’ve visited that don’t have a "Contact Us" page, or a page listing all of its service lines, or even a search box.

But do you know what all hospital websites do have? A lengthy "About Us" page, describing the organization’s history in minute detail. And don’t get me wrong, those pages are informative and useful, especially to us journalists.

But to the average patient trying to find out which floor the lab is on, or their cardiologist’s phone number, it’s wasted space.

Hospital websites must be patient-focused. Your website is often the first experience a new patient has with your organization, and if it’s confusing and hard to navigate, you’re already getting off on the wrong foot.

What good is a hospital website if it is not geared toward informing patients, visually striking, and easily updated by internal staff? While those three elements may seem basic, many organizations do not have the means, time, or expertise to manage their sites well.

Not too long ago, St. Helena (CA) Hospitals’ website was poorly organized, visually bland, and seldom updated. In 2011 the organization embarked on a lofty redesign project, tearing down its online presence and beginning anew.

Re-focusing on the patient
In late 2010, St. Helena administration was fed up with its current website. 

"Our old site was about us," Joshua Cowan, vice president of marketing for Northern California Network of Adventist Health, told Healthcare Marketing Advisor. "It was more hospital-focused than patient-focused, which made it difficult for visitors to navigate and find what they really needed. There was plenty of information about our facility, our history, and our services, but it was organized in a way that made it about us instead of the site visitor."

The site was cumbersome to update and therefore updated infrequently. It lacked a clean presentation. And it was also missing some key elements, such as descriptions of conditions and treatments available, and the physicians who offer them.

Each of those characteristics is critical to a successful hospital website. A frequently updated site can improve search engine optimization and informs patients about the news and events going on at your organization. And including treatment and physician information is a must-have for any hospital site.

Embarking on the redesign journey
St. Helena began its redesign process in October 2010.

It opted to join the content management system that had been selected for use by all Adventist Health facilities. Though some parts of the system were predetermined, there was still plenty of flexibility to allow for St. Helena’s priorities and character to come through, Cowan said.

"In addition to being a health resource for the communities we serve, we specialize in several services which draw patients from great distances," he said. "Our website needed to be both a servant to the community as well as a stand-out resource for medical tourists.  We wanted the site to be intuitive, easy to navigate, patient focused and visually striking."

Cowan and his team also decided to combine St. Helena’s three regional campuses into one site, with individual location pages underneath it.

"This gave all three communities access to the same great body of information without the cost and complexity of maintaining three unique sites," he said.

Reveling in the results
When St. Helena’s new site launched in June 2011 it had reached its administration’s main goals of creating a visually attractive site that engages visitors in a patient-focused and intuitive experience for all three campuses, Cowan says.

"In addition to allowing a more traditional navigation by hospital service, our site allows patients to browse conditions and treatment and then to learn more about what we offer and which providers are available to that service locally," Cowan said. "The new approach is much more patient friendly."

Both St. Helena’s page rankings and the volume of site visits have improved, with the majority of patient users visiting several service line-specific microsites.

"Those sites get the majority of the patient visits and rank quite well on the search sites based on more targeted keywords," Cowan said. "Featuring these service-specific micro-sites and landing pages remains important so that visitors can have the experience they are seeking rather than receiving the broad range of messages available on our core site."

This week, take some time to view your site from the eyes of a patient. Make a list of 10 or so basic items that a patient should be able to find from your homepage in one or two clicks. You may find it harder than you’d think.

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Marianne Aiello is a contributing writer at HealthLeaders Media.

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