Better connected hospitals 2012

How customer-centric are hospital websites?

Martin Greenwood

Socitm Insight Programme Manager

Our experience

• Better connected: annual survey into state of local authority websites since 1999

• Website take-up service since 2004 now used by 140 councils across the UK

• Surveys commissioned by government

• Reports on best practice

9 May 12 Better connected hospitals 2

Our experience

• We also run up to five events each year

based on this work, eg• Building Perfect Council Websites

(14 July 2012)


Our review

• Survey of all 433

UK council websites

• Main survey of 210

questions by team

of 12 reviewers

• Supplemented by extra surveys (eg social media) and third party data (eg RNIB, Hitwise)


How we assessed websites

• № of customer journeys for top tasks

(5 to 9, depending upon council type)

• № of usability criteria – maximum of 4

(Navigation, search engine, A to Z and

accessibility)

• Overall reviewer rating – from 1 (poor) to

3 (very good)


Customer journey for top tasks

• Apply for council job• Object to planning application• Find rubbish collection days• Pay council tax• Renew library book• Find opening times for local

swimming pool• Find records office opening

times• Find out about getting help at

home• Find out school term dates• Find winter gritting routes

For each task

• Ease of finding (eg arrival from Google, use of search, A to Z, information architecture and

landing pages)

• Ease of completing (step-by-step customer journey)


Success with top tasks

• Find out school term dates 80%• Pay council tax 71%• Find records office opening times 70% • Apply for council job 66%

• Find rubbish collection days 63%• Renew library book 51%• Find winter gritting routes 48%• Find out about getting help at home 43%

• Find opening times for swimming pool 38%• Object to planning application 34%


Success with usability

• Use of search 67%• Accessibility 58%• Use of A to Z 53%

• Navigation for top tasks 12%

Barriers to navigation• Lack of consistency with service

landing pages• Too many navigational devices• Lack of care about naming of

links and tasks• Still using LGNL classification• Use of inappropriate ‘Apply for it,

Find it, Pay for it’ structure• Too much prime space for news,

events etc• Below the fold navigation• Misuse of hovering menus• Misuse of carousels


Website take-up service

• Pop-up survey offered to one in five web users

• 16 questions, eg What were they looking for? Did they find it ? How good was the experience?

• Used by 140 + councils

(30% of total)


Website take-up service : Volumes• 23,500 responses each month (up to 500 each

council)

• Estimated 35.9m visits per month to all UK local government in 2011

• Each single tier / county receives average 150,000 visits per month; each shire district 40,000

• Each council on average attracts 18% of its local residents to its site each month


Q Did you find what you were looking for today ?

Source: Website take-up service (2011)

9 May 12 Better connected hospitals

But it’s your customers that count A few of the simpler comments

• Information about adult courses not sufficient. No information about times or start dates or detailed information about courses.. No search function and no option to order a course prospectus

• I was looking for further information on the child care support scheme. I have telephoned and left a message

• Leaflet on adaptations, I'll phone.

• I wanted to be able to look up requests for planning permission for the past year. I will probably visit the planning department.

• Can I burn wood in the back garden ? I'll call to find out


Cost of web visit failures (England)

Cost of failure (per month)

(£2.83 per failed visit)

Shire county (x 27) £2.58mShire district (x 201) £4.95mLondon borough (x 33) £2.70mMetropolitan district (x 36) £3.78mUnitary (E) (x 56) £3.77m

Total £17.78mFor full year £213m

9 May 12 Better connected hospitals

Importance of task management

• Customer view of visit to public sector website - just a task to carry out !

• Site should be designed around most common tasks (‘top tasks’)

• Each site will also have huge number of low value tasks (though still useful) which probably get in the way

of top tasks.

• Focus relentlessly on ensuring that customers can complete their top tasks without encountering problems.

.


Managing top tasks

• Commit to design for top tasks – be prepared to discard other mechanisms

• Identify top tasks from all customer access sources

• Promote top tasks consistently across site• Label tasks clearly• Test and measure tasks obsessively to ensure

that they work right first time, every time


Top tasks in NHS hospitalsHospital websites have diverse audience:

• Patients• Visitors• Employees• News media• Other NHS organisations• GPs• Suppliers• Jobseekers etc


No patients? No need for a hospital!

• A hospital needs patients, both in-patients and out-patients

• In-patients receive visitors

• Patients and visitors should be

primary focus of the website.


Top tasks for patients and visitors

What information would you expect to find on your

local hospital’s website ?

• Cancel an out-patient appointment• Prepare for a stay in hospital• Find out visiting hours• Find out about car parking at the hospital• Find out about infection prevention and control


Nine hospitals examined

• Addenbrooke’s, Cambridge

• St Bartholomew’s, London

• John Radcliffe, Oxford

• Manchester Royal Infirmary

• Queen Elizabeth, B’ham

• Leeds General Infirmary

• Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle

• St Thomas’s, London

• Southampton General


Cancel an out-patient appointment

• Does Google lead me to the task?• Does the home page link me directly to

the task?• Does an return the correct internal

search result in the first three results?• Is the task described in the A-Z?• Does the service description page link

medirectly to this task?• Does my first click take me straight task

completion?• Am I informed how I can cancel or

rearrange my outpatient appointment?

• Can I cancel or request a new

appointment online?• Am I told what will happen if I fail to

attend my appointment?• Is it clear how I might obtain

assistance, if required, to complete this task?

• How effectively is this hospital promoting this as a task?

• How do you rate the completion of this task?

• Was completing this task a ‘Wow!’

experience?


29 Nov 11 Better connected hospitals 21

2011

Cancel an out-patient appointment


Common failures Good practice


• Inadequate information for

patients• Nightmare navigation• Unhelpful search results• Clinical A-Zs• Multiple hospitals, single

domain• Organisation-centric,

no customer focus

• Some great examples of available car parking facilities

• Several sites provide

very good infection

prevention and control

resources

Hosp Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Task 5 Overall

Cancel appt

Hospl stay

Visiting hours

Car parking

Infect control

1 Addenbr V Good V Good Satisf Satisf V Good Satisf

2 St Barts Poor Poor Poor Poor Satisf Poor

3 John R’dcliffe Satisf Poor Satisf V Good V Good Satisf

4 Manc Roy Inf NF Satisf Poor Satisf Poor Poor

5 Queen Eliz Poor Satisf Poor Satisf Satisf Satisf

6 Leeds Gen NF Satisf V Good Satisf V Good Satisf

7 Royal Vic NF Poor Poor Satisf Poor Poor

8 St Thomas’s V Good V Good V Good V Good Satisf V Good

9 Soton Gen V Good Satisf V Good Satisf V Good V Good


2012


John Fox

Still relevant


“A significant improvement over the previous website implementation but plenty of scope to make it better still, eg implementation of top tasks. The biggest stumbling block to using this website is finding it via Google. Very puzzling why the old website remains live and - in some instances - why the new website points to it.”


“I'm not entirely certain why they've bothered to create a new website. Its organisation is so poor that I doubt anyone really finds what they're looking for unless they want to find out how to get to the hospital!”


“If you confine yourself to the Royal Infirmary part of the website there is no obvious way of finding out information about hospital appointments and how to cancel them. The site is a 'Wow!' (Q24) for all the wrong reasons.”



“Outstandingly good. In almost every respect. I can't help wondering if they took our advice on board last year!”


“WOW! What an amazingly comprehensive resource. Even the guide to staff uniforms brightens up a dull day!”

Stop press: 30 Nov strike action

No mention

• Leeds General Infirmary• St Bartholomew‘s, London • (Manchester Royal Infirmary)• (R Victoria Infirmary,

Newcastle )• John Radcliffe, Oxford• Southampton General

As at Mon 28 Nov

Mention

• Queen Elizabeth, Birmingham• Addenbrooke‘s, Cambridge• St Thomas's. London


How customer-centric are your websites?

• How can we improve the overall customer experience of NHS hospital websites?


Health & Medicine

Better connected hospitals 2012