What Newcastle Hospitals asked for
Newcastle Hospitals is one of the largest and most profitable Foundation Trusts in the country, managing six large hospitals and employing over 11,000 people.
They approached TH_NK in 2007 with a view to re-developing their entire Web presence and initially providing online strategic consultancy services. The Trust was aware that its current offering wasn’t meeting the needs of its patients and it was also in the process of completely defining its brand for the first time.
What we did
At the beginning of the project, we ran a number of strategic workshops with a wide range of the Trust’s stakeholders to understand who the users of the site would be and how we could better meet their needs. Following the completion of this phase, Newcastle Hospitals tasked TH_NK with the re-development of its entire website with the aim of meeting the needs of patients and helping to cement the Trust’s reputation as one of the best in the UK.
During the site development, we conducted an in-depth discovery and design process, defining the patient groups using personas and scenarios, and studying many health-related websites to establish what worked well for patients and what didn’t.
We focussed on solving common patient problems, such as finding the way to the hospitals and finding the right wards and departments.
The new site features interactive maps for each of the main hospitals. Each ward also features its own interactive map with specially written directions.
Additionally, we provided integration with Newcastle Hospitals’ news monitoring service to provide up-to-the-minute news at all times and integration with the NHS Jobs system to completely automate the recruitment process. Other patient-friendly features include a ‘jargon buster’, and A-Z service and treatment finder.
The results
The site, which launched in March 2008, firmly established a new online presence for the Trust. Early stats are already showing a positive increase in trends, with average time spent on the site up by 100% and the number of pages viewed by each user up by 70%.
The new brand has been brought to life through a series of animated themes which rotate on the homepage. The introduction of interactive features such as videos and rollover tabs are all aimed at differentiating the Trust from its competitors.