Hospital web sites: Promise and progress

The Internet provides a wide range of technologies that enable hospitals to communicate with their patients, physicians and other important groups. We discuss the promise of many widely used web site features for hospitals. Using a structured audit of 111 hospital web sites, we evaluate the progress...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business research 2004-09, Vol.57 (9), p.1021-1025
Main Authors: Gruca, Thomas S, Wakefield, Douglas S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Auditing
Business
Development
Hospitals
Internet
Services
Studies
Technology
U.S.A
Websites
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Summary:The Internet provides a wide range of technologies that enable hospitals to communicate with their patients, physicians and other important groups. We discuss the promise of many widely used web site features for hospitals. Using a structured audit of 111 hospital web sites, we evaluate the progress being made. We find that most hospitals have mastered the basic “electronic brochure” capabilities. However, less than half of the sites enable visitors to easily search for pertinent information. The progress towards using web sites for appointment scheduling or providing discussion forums about health care is likewise confined to a small group of hospitals.
ISSN:0148-2963
1873-7978
DOI:10.1016/S0148-2963(02)00349-1