Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre officials say the hospital’s updated website should make navigating it a much more user-friendly experience for patients and the public.
Hospital officials on Thursday unveiled the new look, which pared the number of content pages from nearly 1,800 to just 300, while taking into consideration patient-advisor feedback that led to a patient and family landing page, more prominent search features and way-finder maps to help people get to their destination.
The site also became much more mobile-friendly.
Tracie Smith, the hospital’s senior director of communications and engagement, said it was simply time to revamp the site after 11 years.
“Websites were just designed differently then and over all of those years more content was getting added and added and added and it didn’t always make sense in terms of where it was added,” Smith said.
“So we had a site that wasn’t working for patients and families. It was overwhelming. There was too much information. It was hard to navigate.”
They got plenty of feedback when they asked patients and family for input on what the new-look site should contain.
But they weren’t asked to look at the old site and simply say what they didn’t need or want to carry over.
“We just asked them plain and simple, what are you looking for in a new website?” Smith said. “What kind of information can we give you in advance of coming to the hospital, or when you are at the hospital, that will help you in your journey?”
The maps were key, given the size of the hospital, and making them mobile-friendly even more so, Smith said.
“They have their phones with them and if we make this site mobile-device friendly, they can use their phones and actually pull up one of over 100 maps that will show them exactly how to get to the area they’re looking for.”
Patient family advisor Ingrid Warren, who helped hospital officials design the updated site, said she thinks it will be a great resource for the community.
“It’s going to definitely decrease anxiety when having to come to the hospital,” Warren said. “It will make all the information they need readily available, so they can seem confident and comfortable when having to interact as a patient.”
According to statistics provided by the hospital, the old site incurred about 500,000 unique page hits in 2014, between 1,000 and 3,000 per day.
New features include links to the hospital’s social media feeds, cafeteria menus, parking information and easier-to-access contacts for various departments – not to mention a sleeker design.
Smith said the design changes were done internally, minimizing the costs.
