The Children’s Hospital Launches New and Improved Website
from The Children's Hospital (TCH) News, December 2006
Engaging. Full of Hope. User-friendly.
The Sterling Rice Group, Children's
principle marketing agency, provided
guidance on new site design concepts to
complement the new branding initiatives
and the 'it's all better' message.
The Children Hospital ’s new public website is all of the above and more.
The new website, scheduled to launch the week of Dec. 18, offers improved health-care professional resources, comprehensive content about our experts and expertise, an online calendar of events, appointment requests and job applications and new information helping families prepare for their visit.
“The new features will enhance our ability to provide excellent customer service for both external and internal customers,” said Sara Peternell, website content coordinator. “It will facilitate communication between and among providers and patients and the online component will certainly will enhance clinical services.”
Children’s current website was launched in 2001, and over the past five years the technology has changed dramatically.
“Technology is now available that can engage site visitors, improve our rankings on search engines like Google and streamline management of the site much more efficiently,” said Megan Grogan, project manager for the new website. “Our new website will give us the opportunity to integrate this new technology in one place.”
Children’s Marketing and Physician Relations teams led the website redesign process under the guidance of the Web Steering Committee, a multi-disciplinary team from across the organization.
Both Peternell and Grogan facilitated online surveys with visitors of Children’s current site and performed navigational testing with patients and staff to ensure that the organization of the new site was efficient and user-friendly.
A new feature on the website that helps the general public more easily navigate to the services, specialists and departments they are seeking is called ‘Conditions we Treat.’
“This new feature will empower parents to make informed health-care decisions on behalf of their child and it will improve access to Children’s pediatric expertise and high-quality care,” Grogan said.
The Internet has become a critical research tool for individuals seeking health-care resources and also an essential tool when interacting with organizations.
“Our website is essential in our marketing, communications, customer service and supporting our patients while they are at home,” said Michelle Middleton, director of marketing at Children’s. “The new website should prove to be a beautiful ‘front door’ to more information, education, tools and ways for parents, families, kids, staff, donors, volunteers and health professionals to interact with Children’s. It will help position Children’s as the best choice for pediatric health-care.”
As a world-class pediatric hospital, people all over the world will have an opportunity to see why by visiting www.thechildrenshospital.org.
Staying Connected
Children’s new public website, www.thechildrenshospital.org, will launch the week of Dec. 18.
For questions or comments about the new website, please submit a detailed request to website@tchden.org.
