Sign-up for Hospital Alerts
We are constantly monitoring dozens of mailing lists, industry journals, blogs and conferences. Much of the information is noise, but every once in awhile something surfaces that is of particular importance to those involved in running a hospital or health care-related Web site. When something important comes to our attention, we send out an email with a synopsis and a relevant link or attachment.
It isn't fancy. There are no graphics nor fancy fonts nor little boxes announcing some product. Just a plain text synopsis with a link or attachment. Period. They're free, relevant, useful and uncluttered, and you can sign up for them right here.
Sign up for Hospital Alert (enter your email address):
Here's an example of a recent Hospital Alert.
Subject: Hospital Alert: Only 1% who viewed hospital ratings changed behavior
Good afternoon.
There has been a large and growing demand for online rating resources for both hospitals and physicians. The attached report from the California HealthCare Foundation shows that ratings are not resulting in behavior change in customers. The study is limited to California residents, but its conclusions are compelling for all health care providers.
Highlights from the report include:
— Relatively few patients tap the Internet to manage their care, including scheduling appointments with their doctors, filling prescriptions, or using ratings information to make choices about their doctors or hospitals.
— In 2007, 56% of respondents went online to find specific information about medical conditions or prescription drugs. But only 13% of that group made provider appointments online in the last year and 12% reported filling prescriptions online.
— Despite increased overall use of the Web to access health materials, only 26% of Internet users surveyed sought out ratings information on physicians or other health care professionals.
— Twenty-three percent of all respondents saw online hospital ratings information in 2007. However, only 1% actually made a change in their health care decisions based on the ratings.
If you have any questions or would like more information about hospital Web development, please contact me. If you do not wish to receive any additional Hospital Alerts, please let me know.
Brian Moloney
Imaginary Landscape, LLC
773.275.9144
Just Looking: Consumer Use of the Internet to Manage Care (819kb PDF)
