by Ray Langley

Created on: August 02, 2008   Last Updated: August 20, 2008

Today's Competitive Care:
Top five must have features for your hospital's website

In the past the location of a hospital largely, if not solely influenced the patient traffic, yet now with wide spread access to the internet an individual can choose where to receive the care that they need. It makes the marketing of a hospital as influential as that hospital reputation. The website features a hospital chooses will be the difference of drawing patients through the door by choice, or relying on the specialization of the hospital to maintain their budget.

The growing number of retirees and renewal of the current work force provides some interesting challenges for a hospital trying to meet the needs of the local community.
Choice:
The new patients of today are prepared to make choices based on their own personal preferences, experiences, and the information that a hospital provides. A website is the voice a hospital chooses to tell potential patients of the choices they have with that facility.

Health Insurance participation:
With the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), patients want to know if a facility accepts their coverage and how the cost will be dispersed between their responsibility and their coverage. If a patient's current hospital has less of a cost, for the same procedure as your hospital, how much of the difference will be covered?

Mapping and directions:
Your potential patients need to know not only how to get to your hospital, but to what facility on the campus is appropriate for them. Simple addresses with directions are good, links to mapping sites are better.

Interactive information:
Interactive web pages help potential patients gain knowledge and confidence in the procedures available at a facility. Simple "FAQ's" (Frequently Asked Questions) are good, subject searches are better, interactive video is the best.

Virtual Hosts:
A friendly face that introduces your hospital, its mission to the community, and the level of service for which you provide, which appears on the welcome page to guide the patients.

Once the decision has been made about what to offer, the next step is how to build an easy, accessible, reliable website that will attract the patients that are looking for the level of service your facility offers.

With the complex issue of accessibility and security, it is a wise choice to contract the website construction from a third party which may offer protection against information theft and legal accountability.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>