Patients bone up on information at Orthopedics Institute website

 

Three years ago, Children’s Hospital Colorado identified its top-rated Orthopedics Institute as an area for growth.

There was a problem, though—the Institute’s website. It didn’t exist.

Information about the Orthopedics Institute could be found on the hospital’s main website, but the way it was organized didn’t reflect the facility’s collaborative nature. It also failed to maximize the potential of search engines.

Hospital leaders challenged their Web manager and her team to create a microsite for the Institute. The result of their effort earned the title of Best Website for Ragan’s Health Care PR and Marketing Awards for 2012.

From the user’s end, the website is easy; it succinctly organizes an entire area of medicine—orthopedics—into a handful of categories. Better yet, it’s fun and intuitive. Splashed across the home page is an image of a child with labels and links to each body part that the Orthopedics Institute covers.

Building the new site wasn’t quite as simple as the end product.

The hospital hired Bridgeline Digital to analyze traffic and conduct interviews to determine what parents, teens, and sports coaches wanted from the new site.

For instance, teens wanted the ability to share on Facebook information about conditions, so there’s a “share” button on the page. Parents, meanwhile, desired information conveyed in an easy-to-understand way, and the site is very user-friendly. Coaches expressed interest in email updates, which the new site offers.

Bridgeline also conducted a keyword analysis to find out which words would attract audiences through Web searches. These keywords are sprinkled throughout the site to help drive traffic to it from search engines.

Ultimately, a website that attracts visitors, and informs them with well-presented information, takes a lot of hard work—and Children’s Hospital Colorado makes that hard work look easy.

Congratulations to Jennifer Messina, the hospital’s Web marketing manager; Brooke Flower, Web content specialist; Tia Brayman, internal photographer; and Bridgeline Digital, as well as Robin Doerr, Nikki Heider, Janelle Aune, and Bridget Younger.

To view the winning website, click here.