A Website For The 21st Century

from Practice Update, Winter 2006

Today, if you want to know something about The Children’s Hospital, the information you need is just a few clicks away. Simply log on to www.TheChildrensHospital.org.

On the website, PCPs can browse information on the full range of specialty services available, link to TCH Connect or search for an obscure lab value. Additionally, healthcare professionals can sign up through the web site to receive our bi-monthly online newsletter dedicated to primary care providers, nurses and specialists who want to learn more about the children’s hospital health network.

The website offers tools and features for a variety of visitors – office and referral managers can view the latest policies and procedures, check on managed care contracts and download time-saving forms and handouts. Schedulers can print monthly calendars for specialty care, therapy services and urgent care in locations throughout metro Denver. Your patients and their families can read about what to do and what to expect before, during and after their visit, including information on how to prepare for surgery. Parents can search for a physician at The Children’s Hospital or within the referral provider network by name, zip code or specialty.

Keeping You Connected

The Children’s Hospital Web site is already an information-rich resource. However, as the Web is increasingly the place where people look for healthcare information, Children’s has recently set out to build the most comprehensive, easily accessed healthcareWeb site developed by any children’s hospital in the world. In November 2005, the hospital kicked off an extensive Web site redevelopment project which will launch its online presence into a whole new dimension. New modules of functionality such as:

• An interactive events calendar
• Online appointment requests
• Enhanced searches for physicians, services and facilities
• Online weblog
• And an interactive “Ask the expert” feature will establish The Children’s Hospital as a true leader in providing Web-based hospital services.

The new Web site will continue to be developed in the months ahead and is expected to launch before the end of 2006, providing a valuable and continually updated resource for healthcare professionals, patients, visitors and job seekers.

What Does This Mean For You and Your Practice Now and In the Future?

Imagine a Web site resource where you will be able to sign-up and pay for your CME courses, update your personal and/or practice information in the Physician Directory, access secure patient records including high-quality radiology images, and submit a question online to a Children’s Hospital specialist regarding one of your patients!

One proposed module for the new Web site includes a virtual tour of the hospital, which will be particularly useful for anyone preparing for a stay in the hospital. This feature will make communicating with your patients and their families about what to expect a whole lot easier.

In the future, physicians may be able to log-on and view live Web-casts of procedures or take a virtual video tour of the hospital’s surgical suites. When Children’s moves to the new Children’s Hospital in 2007, the latest technology will bring you even closer to your patients through state-of-the-art wireless access. One day, Children’s Web site content may even be delivered to you through your personal data organizer or wireless telephone. The new site will have a profound affect on you and your practice, enabling us to communicate more clearly, efficiently and quickly with you about your patients.

Focus on Enhancing Usability

The new Web site is the work of a core group of hospital staff comprised of Marketing, Information Services, Clinical Information Services and Physician Relations. A multidisciplinary Web Steering Committee made up of representatives from key stakeholders within the organization also advises on key strategic initiatives. In order for the new site to set higher standards in the online healthcare arena, The Children’s Hospital made the decision to partner with Geonetric, a comprehensive Web site vendor based out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Geonetric has partnered with numerous healthcare organizations to develop dynamic Web sites, but Children’s is their first pediatric hospital project.

The Children’s Hospital and Geonetric began its new Web site engagement with an online survey to gather explicit feedback from current site users. Many of our eNewsletter subscribers participated in the survey which collected demographic information, past site usage, impressions of the current site, expectations for site functionality and the purpose for their current visit. The results of the survey will be used in several ways – Geonetric will work with Children’s Web team to define the organization of content on the new site in such a way that it reflects the user’s goals and objectives when visiting the site. For example, the current Web site organizes information based on internal categorization, namely departments, rather than in a way that the majority of healthcare professionals will comprehend easily. The new site might instead categorize content cross-functionally by diagnosis, treatment and clinical trials, making the information more accessible to visitors who are looking for specific disease-related information.

A Fresh New Design To Engage Visitors

First impressions are critically important with a new Web site for drawing people in and providing them with confidence about The Children’s Hospital. The Web site re-design must therefore be a balancing act between art and science. On the one hand, the new Web site must be attractive and visually engaging to all users – patients, families, healthcare professionals, job seekers and even the media. On the other hand, the site must also be functional, intuitive, easy to navigate and fast to load. The Children’s Hospital Web site will become a common place for visitors to obtain healthcare information, so the content provided should be accurate, up-to date and accessible through an easy-to-use tool.

The new Web site will make sure that everyone feels welcomed whether they are walking through the front door or “logging on” for the first time.