Integrated Patient Education on U.S. Hospital Web Sites

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Digital Health
• Healthcare Marketing

Background:

• The integration of patient education into hospital websites is crucial for marketing and meeting patient needs.
• Assessing the current state of interactive patient education on leading hospital websites provides insights into best practices and areas for improvement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the extent and nature of interactive patient education content on the websites of the 2015 Most Wired Hospitals.
• To identify how patient education serves marketing purposes and fulfills online visitor needs.
• To guide hospitals in developing effective interactive patient education integration strategies.

Main Methods:

• Content analysis of hospital websites from the 2015 Most Wired Hospitals census.
• Examination of the presence, source, and linkage of interactive patient education materials.

Main Results:

• 70% of analyzed hospitals featured interactive patient education content.
• A significant majority (76.6%) of this content originated from third-party developers.
• Limited integration was observed: only 20% linked content to hospital resources, and 26% used cross-referencing.

Conclusions:

• While interactive patient education is prevalent, its effective integration with hospital resources and marketing strategies is underdeveloped.
• Hospitals should leverage information communication technology to enhance patient education content, linking it to internal resources and marketing efforts.
• Strategic integration of patient education can improve patient outcomes and organizational marketing effectiveness.